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STRENGTH OF WILL 



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STRENGTH OF WILL 



BY 



E, BOYD BARRETT, S.J. 

M.A.. Hons. (Nat. Univ. of Ireland) 
D.Ph. (Louvain Univ.) 

Author of "Motive Force and Motivation Tracks'* 




P. J. KENEDY & SONS 

PRLNTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE 
44 BARCLAY STREET, NEW YORK 



12^l1 



Mifyil <©bstat 



Remy Lafort 

Censor 



Smprtmatur 



>& John Cardinal Farley 

Archbishop of New York 



November 24th, 1915 



Copyright. 1915, 
P. JLjfjENEDY &.SQNS 

N& / ^ 

OK 30 1915 

©CI.A420102 



TO 
SURGEON BOYD BARRETT 



FOBEWOBD 

In these pages an effort is made to give a 
plain account of the Will, and to indicate a 
method whereby it may be improved and 
strengthened. 

An effort is made also to present the mat- 
ter in an attractive way, so that a certain 
interest may be taken in the activities of the 
Will, and so that, when familiarised with in- 
trospection, one may find profit and amuse- 
ment from studying the details of the won- 
derful life that goes on within. 

As far as possible technical terms and ab- 
struse discussions are avoided. Indeed, there 
seems no need to introduce metaphysics, as our 
method is to observe and describe, as do ex- 
perimentalists, and to keep close to what is. 
concrete. These pages tell of what is felt and 
seen, not of course by the fingers or eyes of 
the body, but by the faculties of the mind. The 
spirit can probe and poke about into its own 
dark corners, and can ride fast after its own 
swift movements. Of what it observes and 

7 



FOREWORD 



learns, on such occasions, and of what it does, 
these pages tell. 

We assume, of course, that readers are al- 
ready tolerably well informed as to the na- 
ture and chief functions of the Will. Further, 
we suppose that they are aware of the value 
and worth of having a strong, effective will. 
Finally, we natter ourselves that readers are 
not without some inclination and intention to 
bestir themselves in the direction of improv- 
ing their own wills. 

It is not with the purpose of substituting 
this book for other books on the Will that 
these pages are written, but rather of sup- 
plementing them in one important point. The 
books which already hold the field are excel- 
lent from many points of view, but from one 
point of view they are deficient. They do not 
suggest a practical method of will-training. 
They are written on the "Education of the 
Will," but they are not helpful to those who 
seek a definite method of strengthening and 
of improving the Will. 

One word more in conclusion. As far as pos- 
sible references to other books are avoided, 
but references to experiences are frequent. 
The reason is that our standpoint is not that 
of authority, hut of experiment. The experi- 

8 



FOREWORD 



merits referred to have been carried on, at 
times with the strictest scientific exactitude, 
as those conducted at Louvain University from 
1909 to 1911 ; at times with less scientific rigour, 
as those conducted at Clongowes Wood Col- 
lege, Co. Kildare, Ireland, from 1913 to 1914. 
Even in quoting from experiments we have en- 
deavoured to be as little tedious as possible, and 
have striven to awaken interest in what should 
be the most fascinating part of Psychology. 



CONTENTS 

SECTION PAGE 

I. General Notions About Will-Training . . 15 

II. Religion and Will-Training 25 

III. Things About the Will 39 

IV. The Awakening op the Will 49 

V. Three Introspections op Will-Contests . . 59 

VI. The Will and the Intellect 73 

VII. The Sick Will 85 

VIII. Causes op Will-Maladies 105 

IX. Methods op Will-Training 115 

X. A New Method Explained 131 

XI. The Technique of the New Method . . . 147 

XII. A Tentative Scheme op Exercises .... 165 

XIII. The Will and Habit 177 

XTV. The Will and Sensuality 195 

XV. Further Facts About the Will 211 

Epilogue — The Future of Will Psychology . . . 225 

Appendix — The Science of Character 241 



SECTION I 

GENERAL NOTIONS ABOUT 
WILL-TRAINING 



SECTION I 

GENERAL NOTIONS ABOUT WILL-TRAINING 

Those who think of devoting themselves to 
body-training are not repelled by the knowl- 
edge that daily exercises, which demand a cer- 
tain sacrifice of time, and a certain expendi- 
ture of effort, are called for. It seems to them 
quite reasonable to pay the cost of what they 
buy. They are purchasers of well-developed 
muscles and finely shaped limbs, and they pay 
readily in daily portions the price, which is 
bodily exercise. In like manner those who wish 
to train their memories are quite prepared to 
undertake certain tasks at certain times. It 
would be strange if it were otherwise with 
those who desire to train their wills. 

Will-training is, of course, a gradual proc- 
ess, and in this it resembles body-training and 
memory-training. Little by little the will is 
built up. Little by little it is developed and 
perfected and frees itself from taint and dis- 
ease. It is a slow process, but a very sure 
process. It demands, needless to say, much 
time and much earnestness. 

15 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



Over and above time and earnestness, will- 
training costs effort, and that means .self- 
sacrifice. Indeed, it is true to say that will- 
training costs what we are least ready to pay, 
for the discipline of daily exercises means self- 
sacrifice. It is better to admit this at once, 
f and not to pretend that a strong will can be 
\ bought with a cheque, or won with a smile. 
Strange to say, in order to train the will, 
will is needed. Will is self-trained. Will 
\ works on itself and perfects itself. If it did 
not preexist in us, there would be nothing to 
perfect, and no source of strength wherewith 
to work. For the will is called on at every 
step in will-training. It is the will which 
builds up the will by willing. Perhaps, for the 
moment, these words are not plain and clear, 
but presently they will become so. 

In will-training no expenditure of effort is 
fruitless. All is banked for some future oc- 
casion. But more than this, we begin to draw 
interest at once on what we bank. Our will 
grows stronger gradually, and day by day we 
derive benefit from the exercises we have al- 
ready accomplished. This means very much, 
as the will enters into every action. Indeed, 
no faculty is so universal in its scope of activ- 
ity as the will. From tying a boot-lace in the 

16 






NOTIONS ABOUT WILL-TRAINING 

morning to switching off an electric lamp at 
night, the will enters into all we do. 

The question will doubtless be asked, "Is it 
possible to train the will! If one is already 
advanced in age, is it still possible 1" The an- 
swer is most de cidedl y in the afcmative. It 
is always possible to train, that is, to improve 
the will. No matter how weak and ineffi- 
cient the will may have become, yet is it still 
possible to train it. 

There is no doctrine held more tenaciously 
by sane psychologists than this doctrine of the 
possibility of restoring and rebuilding the will, 
even when things have gone very far. 

Some wills, of course, seem more capable 
than others of reaching a high degree of per- 
fection. Not many men could acquire the will- 
power to joke about death and suffering, like 
Sir Thomas More or St. Laurence, even when 
in the hands of executioners. But all men can 
increase the strength of their will, and can 
so far throw off lethargy and laziness of 
character as to become energetic and strenu- 
ous. 

Having prefaced these observations about 
the need for time, and effort, and gradual de- 
velopment in will-training, it may be well to 
indicate an important distinction between "re- 

17 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



form of character' ' and " increase of will- 
power.' ' 

Many authors regard the "education of the 
will" as synonymous with self-perfection, self- 
culture, and the reform of character. As a 
result, in books which profess to deal with will- 
training, much is said about the passions, 
ideals, sensuality, habits, meditation, day- 
dreaming, idea-force, self-conquest and such 
topics, but little is said of the precise means 
of curing will-disease and of acquiring will- 
force. Indeed, it would seem that the word 
will is taken in far too broad and too general 
a sense, and that reform of character is looked 
upon as quite the same thing as increase of 
will-power. Now this is certainly not so. 

It is quite conceivable that a man should 
have a very strong will, and yet care very lit- 
tle for culture or for the observing of the moral 
law. And further, it is quite conceivable that 
a man should set himself to develop and train 
his will, and should succeed in so doing, with- 
out ever entertaining the idea of making him- 
self a more noble or more ideal character. 

Men train their memories without any ref- 
erence to morality, and men may well train 
their wills without any reference to morality. 
Without doubt when will-strength is acquired, 

18 



NOTIONS ABOUT WILL- T E A INING 

passion can more easily be controlled. With- 
out doubt, too, it usually happens that virtue 
and true strength of will go hand in hand. But 
this does not gainsay the fact that virtue and 
will-strength are two quite different things, 
and that books professedly written on the 
"education of the will" should not be almost 
exclusively devoted to the consideration of 
good habits and self-culture. 

A book on will-training should be as closely 
devoted to will-exercises, will-hygiene, and will- 
phenomena, as a book on body-training should 
be devoted to body-exercises, body-hygiene, and 
muscular phenomena. 

The will, like the intellect, is now an instru- 
ment of good, and now of evil. The strong 
will, still improving and growing stronger, may 
become more and more an instrument of evil. 
It may co-exist with vicious passions, gross 
lack of culture, deplorable habits, and an utter 
contempt for the conventions of life. The will 
is an instrument, weak or powerful for good 
or evil, but only an instrument, although as 
our highest and noblest instrument it should 
be our object ever to perfect and raise it. 
That it is important to have a strong will no 
one will deny. We all admire the man of 
strong will — he is more truly a man than other 

19 



STRENGTHOFWILL 



men. He has the power to master himself — 
to become "lord of himself " and sole ruler of 
his own forces. He knows what he can do. He 
does what he sets himself to do. He wills to 
do what he does, and means what he wills. He 
knows his own mind, and puts his hand with 
confidence to do that on which he is resolved, 
neither over-imp etuonsly nor over-indolently. 
Lethargy has no hold on him, and he scorns 
to give way to impulse. Energetic and stren- 
uous without being over-active, he is consistent 
and persevering. He is in earnest about his 
work, in beginning it, in continuing it, and in 
concluding it. He goes not a step beyond, nor 
does he fall a step short, of the just limit of 
his purpose. He uses his powers with ease 
and with assurance. He seems, as it were, to 
have possession of his own will; to be free in 
his independence. He wills. His body in his 
hands is like a machine which he uses to ac- 
complish his ends. That machine is started 
without a hitch, is governed and regulated as 
to speed and direction most smoothly, and is 
pulled up without a jerk by his will. No 
engine-driver can control a locomotive as he 
controls his body. He does not care, usually, 
about boasting, or bullying, or flattering. He 
is too strong for that. He is not over-anxious 

20 



NOTIONS ABOUT WILL- TR AININ G 

to display his force. He knows lie has power 
and he does not care if others know it or not. 
Rather, perhaps, he is aware that others do 
know and feel it intnitively. He does not dis- 
play his will-force by clenching his fists, and 
grinding his teeth, and convulsively heaving 
his breast like the heroes of the cinema. He 
is content to face his daily tasks with quiet as- 
surance, and to carry out what his will wills. 



21 



SECTION II 
EELIGION AND WILL-TEAINING 



section n 

RELIGION AND WILL-TRAINING 

The only will-training which the plain man 
undergoes is the will-training which the prac- 
tice of religion affords. This is, of course, 
a very variable quantity. Nevertheless, in the 
case of a man who faithfully adheres to his 
religious duties it is not inconsiderable. It will 
be our duty now, as far as possible, to esti- 
mate its nature and extent. 

In Catholicism, for it is the religion we con- 
template, there are many factors which tell for 
the education and improvement of the will. 
There is, first of all, the earnest striving to- 
wards the Summum Bonum, towards God, 
which is the central fact of religion, and the 
great, supreme work of the will. There is next, 
the principle of asceticism, viz., that given a 
good intention in a moral act, the more 
strongly and whole-heartedly we will, the more 
value the act will have — for willing, as we 

25 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



know, can be more or less intense. 1 There is, 
thirdly, the discipline of regularity and fidel- 
ity in religions exercises ; and, lastly, the prac- 
tice of internal and external mortification, 
which is boldly and uncompromisingly insisted 
upon by the Church — " unless you do penance 
you shall all perish." 

Two principles on which Catholic asceticism 
to a great extent reposes have close reference 
to the will. 

(1) In acts of worship the most important 
element, the element whereby we merit, is will 
and intention. 

(2) In attaining virtue and self-perfection, 
our chief aim should be to go against ourselves, 
that is, to utilise our will in overcoming 
passion. 

The Catholic religion calls for great regu- 
larity in worship. There are yearly, and 
weekly, and daily duties. There are vigils of 
feasts and long periods, Lent and Advent, to 
be kept in the spirit of penance. There are 

1 Vide St. Thomas (De Malo, q. 3, a. 11 ad 3), where he re- 
fers to greater or lesser intensity of willing. 

' ' Voluntarium dicitur cujus principium est in ipso agente. 
Et ideo quanto principium interius magis augetur, tanto etiam 
peccatum fit gravius. " 

26 



RELIGION AND WILL-TRAINING 

duties, hard and severe for the human heart, 
to be undergone. Confession, and fasting, and 
weekly Mass. In all things the spirit of order 
prevails — even in the smallest details. How 
and when to use Holy Water, how and when 
to recite the Office — in all particulars there is 
perfect method. The discipline of the whole 
system is faultless. There is no disorder, no 
uncertainty. Nothing is left to chance. The 
will submits to rule, and in embracing religion 
it embraces order and regularity. It seeks 
to form for itself good habits, and finds there- 
in the foundation of virtue. It finds, in fact, 
that in practising virtue it is learning to will 
well, and that in willing well it is practising 
virtue. 

As we shall see later on, one of the best ex- 
ercises for the will is to put before itself a 
clear, well-defined task which is not too diffi- 
cult and to' set itself in all earnestness to ac- 
complish it. Now, this is precisely the kind of 
exercise that religion affords the will. Let the 
task be to attend Mass next Sunday, or to fast 
next Friday, or to make restitution on such 
a date for something stolen. In each case the 
duty is clear and well-defined. Seriousness and 
earnestness in the accomplishment of the duty, 
are in each case evoked by the consideration of 

27 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



the moral gravity of neglecting it. The will 
has to brace itself up, to face the task bravely, 
and to fulfil it completely. An effort is called 
for, and that effort is good for the will. 

But further than this religion improves the 
will by calling for reiterated efforts. An iso- 
lated effort is of little significance in will-edu- 
cation, whereas regularly repeated efforts 
mean very much. Now religion calls for the 
methodical expenditure of effort. Let us take 
the simple case of morning prayers. It is not 
enough to say them occasionally or fairly often. 
We are ashed to say them every morning. That 
is, we are asked, every morning, to make an 
effort. So it is for nearly all the duties of re- 
ligion. They recur. They demand reiterated 
efforts. The will is not suffered to lie fallow. 
It is kept constantly at work. No doubt, habit 
smoothes away the harsh shock of effort, and 
automatism comes to our help, but neverthe- 
less there is always the fundamental necessity 
of making efforts. One of the points in which 
religion does most for the will is its regard 
to resolutions. To make and keep a good reso- 
lution is a power that every faithful Catholic 
has to acquire. Now to resolve is an act of 
the will. It means that the will chooses a 
bonum, an end or object, and aims at its acqui- 

28 



RELIGION AND WILL-TRAINING 

sition. It wills, seeks, strives for, and desires 
that bonum with more or less intensity. 

Now, as our whole moral good frequently 
depends on the making and keeping of a good 
resolution, the Catholic Church has taught us 
through her ascetic writers how to do so. Fur- 
ther, she aids us in every way to make and keep 
good resolutions, thus doing an inestimable 
work for the education of the will. 

It may perhaps be well to dwell on this point, 
so as to bring out clearly the part of religion 
in will-training. 

Catholic ascetics teach us, in this matter, first 
of all to have a clear and definite view of the 
object we propose to ourselves — let us suppose 
that it is to overcome the passion of anger. 
Now the resolution "not to give way to anger' ' 
would be far too broad and too great. Apply- 
ing the principle, "divide et impera," we con- 
tent ourselves with resolving "not to give way 
to external manifestations of anger." But here 
again, our resolution is too broad and too great. 
"We again apply the principle, "divide et im- 
pera, 9 * and resolve "not to give way to angry 
retorts." This resolution is pointed, definite 
and intelligible — it means that cross and peev- 
ish remarks must not occur. A time limit may 
now be added in order to make the resolution 

29 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



still more well-defined. " Until the last day 
of this month I will not make an angry retort. ' ' 
Possibly, it might be advisable to limit this 
resolution still more, by conditions of place or 
circumstance, adding "in such a place or to 
such a person, or during such a ceremony/ ' 
but we shall suppose that to be unnecessary. 

The resolution being now well formulated, 
the task of making it begins. Merely to say 
it over or to promise it in a feeble way is ab- 
solutely useless. The whole will, with the 
whole force and energy of the will, must be 
brought into it. Not only that, but the whole 
living strength of the will must be literally 
hurled into it, not once or twice, but again and 
again each day, right up to the very last day 
of the month. 

The resolution must be meant. "We must 
be able to say, i ' Yes ! before God, I mean that ! 
I mean it as intensely and really as I can ever 
mean anything! I will keep that resolution. 
I know I can and will keep it because I mean 
it. Further, I will take every precaution to 
keep it alive and vigorous within me by re- 
making it again and again." 

Needless to say such resolutions should not 
be lightly made, nor should they be trifled with. 
In them the credit of the will is at stake. It 

30 



EELIGION AND WILL-TRAINING 

is a serious thing to make a serious resolu- 
tion, and it is a bad thing to break one, bad for 
the will and bad for self-respect. 

Now, Catholic writers suggest many means 
whereby we may render our resolutions more 
secure. 2 We must pray for the grace to keep 
them. Supernatural aid will then be ours ; but 
prayer will also aid us naturally. We must 
meditate on the advantages of keeping it and 
on the disadvantages of breaking it, on the 
beauty of patience and on the pettiness and 
shame of irritability. Our mind will be con- 
vinced by this means, and our emotions will 
be aroused in favour of the resolution. Next, 
we are advised to intensify our resolution not 
merely by direct will-acts, but by indirect will- 
acts derived from self-inflicted penance. For 
pain and hunger will make us more in earnest 
and will make our "meaning" more sincere. 

Such, in general, is the method which Catho- 
lics are taught to employ in the matter of reso- 
lutions. Needless to say, if this method is 
faithfully employed the will grows strong and 
energetic — its good qualities are developed and 

2 One practical method is to make the "Particular Examem" 
which consists in a half- daily examination of our failures or 
success in our resolution. 

31 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



its faults are corrected. Of course, it must 
not be thought that religion in itself wholly 
consists in making and keeping good resolu- 
tions. This is not so. Nevertheless, to a great 
extent, religion depends on the making and 
keeping of good resolutions, as on its method. 
It may perhaps be well to take a type of 
will-hero, whose strength of will was the out- 
come of religion. Such a one was John 
Berchmans, a young Flemish Jesuit of the 
early seventeenth century. 3 His name is un- 
known to the literary and political world, but 
none the less he was possessed of remarkable 
gifts of mind. The chief note of his character 
was moderation and good-sense, combined with 
an extraordinary tenacity of purpose. If he 
put before himself some end to be gained, he 
devoted his whole strength towards achieving 
it, and he regarded every tiny detail involved 
in this pursuit of his end as of the most seri- 
ous consequence — maximi minima Jiabuit. He 
combined the qualities of miser and spend- 
thrift in such matters, being most miserly 
about allowing himself the slightest deviation 
from his purpose or the slightest delay in 
winning it, whereas he was most lavish and 
generous in giving himself and all he had to 

8 Such another was the better-known St. Teresa. 
32 



RELIGION AND WILL-TRAINING 

the working out of his aim. In him the maxim 
was verified to the fullest: "Suae quisque vitae 
pictor est; artifex hujus operis est voluntas." 
He set himself to become a saint in a new way, 
by doing ordinary things extremely well, and 
thanks to his lifelong pertinacity of purpose 
he gained his end. 

That he sought in religion strength and in- 
spiration is of course indisputable. To fulfil 
perfectly all his religious duties was the main 
object of his life, and it was in fulfilling them 
that the promptness, consistency and persever- 
ing regularity of his will were manifested. 

It would not be difficult to find among the 
annals of the Saints many other examples of 
will-heroes: some were men of extraordinary 
energy, like Francis Xavier, some of extreme 
gentleness, like Francis de Sales, some of cold 
intellectual intensity, like Ignatius, some of 
child-like sweetness, like Antony of Padua. In 
each case great will-strength followed in the 
wake of religious perfection. In each case con- 
verse with God raised and developed the will- 
faculty, just as it improved every other faculty 
of the mind. 

We have seen at some length that the prac- 
tice of religion implies will-training, but never- 
theless it must be remembered that it is not 

33 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



the special aim of religion to train the will. 4 
It does so only indirectly, and it does not al- 
ways do so as perfectly and as surely as we 
might wish. It seems necessary to have some 
specific training. To train the will, as it were, 
for the sake of the will itself, for the sake of 
the perfection of the will, and not for the sake 
of other things. 5 

The will must be taught, to some extent, to 
will for the sake of willing. The will builds 

4 From one point of view it is the object of religion to train 
the will — to train it to abstain from sin and to train it to 
embrace God by will — love. 

5 We append a quotation from a paper read at the ' ' Interna- 
tional Congress of Moral Education, ' ' 1912, by Dr. J. H. Aben- 
danon. Making allowance for hjg^point of view, the quotation 
is of interest and instructive. 

"On pretend souvent que la religion peut suffire a, 1 'educa- 
tion morale, c'est-a-dire a la formation du caraetere et a l'af- 
fermissement de la volonte. II est cependant de notoriete 
courante que la foi religieuse n'est pas un empechement pour 
commettre des actes criminels. Sans cela la statistique crimi- 
nelle devrait varier d'apres le degre de religiosite des dif- 
ferentes countries. La religion peut cooperer d'une fac,on 
tres efficace a, 1 'education morale; elle en est meme un des 
plus puissants auxiliaires, et les belles maximes qu'elle repand 
sont les meilleurs guides dans la vie humaine, mais seulement a 
condition d'aller de pair avec le relevement et l'exercice con- 
tinuel de la volonte. C'est en outre une chose reeonnue par 
ceux qui sont a la tete des ecoles confessionelles que 1 'edu- 
cation y presente une lacune. Eh bien, cette lacune n 'est autre 
chose que le defaut de controle de la volonte. Ce defaut fait 
que le meillcur enseignement moral reste sans effet pratique. ' ' 

34 



RELIGION AND WILL-TRAINING 

up will by willing. As we shall see later, it 
-builds up will best by willing will. The will 
must, as it were, turn back on itself in willing, 
and will will. Exercises calculated to provoke 
willing for the sake of willing are necessary. 
We must feel the pure glow of pleasure in- 
volved in willing for the sake of the will. Just 
as the intellect or memory must be trained, 
apart from the training they receive in the 
practice of religion, so must the will be trained 
apart from the training it receives in this man- 
ner. 

It must not, however, be overlooked that will- 
training of itself, without relation to religion 
and morality, is in great part meaningless. 
For, as Professor Forster writes, "All our 
efforts are lacking in deeper meaning if they 
are not correlated to a great spiritual view of 
life as a whole. Even the most perfect develop- 
ment of will-power tends to degenerate into a 
mere athletic exercise without enduring signifi- 
cance. ' ' 6 

8 "Marriage and the Sex Problem,' ' p. 207. 



35 



SECTION III 
THINGS ABOUT THE WILL 



section in 

THINGS ABOUT THE WILL 

We know little about the will. We are aware 
of its spiritual nature, and we can trace it 
roughly in some of its activities. We are fa- 
miliar with, some of the phenomena which ac- 
company willing, but that is all. Compared 
with the knowledge we have of the memory, 
what we know of the will is as nothing. We 
are unable to measure it, to distinguish its 
various types, or to juggle with it in experi- 
mentation as in the case of the memory. It is 
elusive. It baffles us and escapes from obser- 
vation. We make plans whereby to catch a 
glimpse of it in its working and our plans fail. 
We know we have wills and that we will. We 
are conscious that willing is not thinking nor 
imagining. Most of us know little more. 

The method by which we seek to study the 
will is the introspective method. We look into 
ourselves and try to see what happens. We 
have a choice to make. The will decides for 

39 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



one or other of the alternatives. We carefully 
follow the movements of the will. The play of 
motives and of impulses interests us. Hesi- 
tation perhaps takes place and we follow its 
growth and development. The choice-process 
proceeds, develops, is completed and the choice 
is made. But although we know that the will 
has made its appearance and has acted the es- 
sential role, we have not been able to distin- 
guish it! 

Yet, whatever of importance we do know 
about the will is known through introspection. 
Patience and practice and skill in introspection 
eventually result in our being able to observe 
the will somewhat, and to distinguish the char- 
acteristics of good willing. It is fascinating 
work, that of studying the will, but it is diffi- 
cult and delicate. It is not hard to affirm that 
there is a will-feeling which is quite different 
from other feelings or emotional states, but 
it is not easy to analyse and distinguish the 
ingredients of the will-feeling. It is easy to 
see that consent is different from resolution, 
but it is not so easy to point out the precise 
difference, in psychological elements, between 
these two acts of the will. Yet it is by intro- 
spection alone that this can be done. The mind 
must watch and follow and scrutinise the vari- 

40 






THINGS ABOUT THE WILL 

ous phases of volitional activity. The mind 
has this power, and it is a power worthy of 
exercise. 

Many words and phrases denote volitional 
activities. "To make up one's mind," to re- 
solve, to consent, to desire, to strive, to choose, 
to make an effort — these infinitives point to 
will acts. Conation, intention, willing, inhibit- 
ing, controlling, permitting, preventing, and 
many such words are also used of the will. 
When a man of character, at some crisis of his 
life, makes up Ms mind to adopt a certain 
course, and says, "I will do so and so. I am 
determined to do it. It is my firm intention 
to do it" — he is speaking of a certain state 
of soul that we call willing. This state is radi- 
cally different from all other states. It is 
about action. It is emotional. It concerns self 
and is very personal. It is a law and a line 
of conduct. It binds and controls. It is crea- 
tive and arbitrary. It means self-determina- 
tion. Self rules self. It is about the future. 
It is about reality. It is something almost 
sacred. 

The will has been defined as "the faculty of 
inclining towards or striving after some object 
intellectually apprehended as good." We 
know that there is an active side in us — a ' ' do- 

41 



STRENGTHOFWILL 



ing" side as well as a mere recipient or pas- 
sive side. We tend outwards, we attack or 
carry out at one time; at another we submit, 
undergo and suffer. Now the former state, the 
"ad" state, is that of willing. But we must 
tend towards something. The something 
towards which we tend by nature is "the 
good." The intellect sees and knows some- 
thing useful or perfect. Our interest is 
aroused. "We are attracted by this something. 
At first a mere fancy or a vague wish is ex- 
perienced. Then a stronger wish grows into 
a desire. "With the desire a certain tending 
towards is awakened. The will is now at work. 
We are striving, or seeking for the good. This 
develops into conation and deliberate effort to 
attain the good. The striving for the good is 
a force — a vis appetitiva — it is the function of 
the will. It may be more or less strong. It 
grows or wanes. It may be deep in our na- 
ture or shallow and light. If very weak and 
transient it will not entail long protracted work 
and effort. At most it will entail an impulsive 
effort. Or it may entail no active effort, but 
may only provoke a hesitation and dilatori- 
ness of mind. Now the art of rendering this 
vis appetitiva deep and strong and lasting is 
the art of strengthening the will. With the 

42 



THINGS ABOUT THE WILL 

man of strong will, the vis appetitiva is so 
powerful that it overcomes all obstacles, faces 
all difficulties, and outlives all delays. From 
this it is perhaps clear that the will is "the 
faculty of inclining towards or striving after 
some object intellectually apprehended as 
good." 

It may be well to give a concrete example. 
Let us suppose that a boy of fifteen accom- 
panies his father, who is a keen mountain- 
climber, to Switzerland. The boy overhears his 
father speak of a grand climb up a difficult 
summit. The boy's interest is aroused. His 
mind pictures the pleasure and honour to be 
gained by climbing this mountain. The 
achievement appears to him a bonum. His 
mind apprehends it as such. He begins to 
wish to do it. The wish grows. He desires. 
Finally he resolves to climb the mountain. He 
is delayed and perhaps prevented for a time. 
He desires and resolves all the more. Day 
by day his resolution grows stronger. He 
strives to find a good opportunity. He makes 
plans. He saves up to pay for guides. He 
makes every possible preparation. He is most 
energetic about this and quite naturally, for 
his will is bent on it. Everything which is cal- 
culated to help on his plans becomes desirable, 

43 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



becomes a bonum. He takes a keen pleasure in 
his resolution. At last an opportunity pre- 
sents itself, and at once, almost without an ef- 
fort, he is at work climbing. In the actual 
fulfilment of his resolution he finds pleasure. 
When he succeeds and reaches the top he ex- 
periences a deep feeling of satisfaction. "The 
object' ' intellectually apprehended as good has 
been won! 

All his acts leading up to the attainment of 
his end were directed by his will. The vis 
appetitiva carried him over all obstacles, and 
controlled all his movements until the bonum 
was gained. 

We have used the expression "to will will" 
more than once. A word of explanation may 
now be offered. 

It often happens that we see before us some 
task or work of considerable difficulty that we 
are inclined to shirk. We realise that it would 
cost us a big effort and we feel very disin- 
clined for such an effort. Still we are inti- 
mately aware that should we set our minds to 
it, we could accomplish it. If ive did resolve 
to achieve the task we could achieve it. But 
we refrain from willing. We refuse to set our 
wills to the task. 

Then, a second state of mind springs up, in 
44 



THINGS ABOUT THE WILL 

the form of a question, " Shall we set our will 
to work? Shall we put our will in motion? 
Shall we will to will!" 

Here the will is confronted with the duty 
of driving itself, of putting itself to work. If 
we now answer the question affirmatively and 
say, ' ' Yes ! We shall put our wills in motion, ' ' 
then we really and truly will to will. This act 
is par excellence the work of the will, and the 
best exercise for the will. Here the will de- 
termines itself. Here the will acts most di- 
rectly and most surely along the lines of good 
willing. The will wills — the will wills to will! 



45 



SECTION IV 
THE AWAKENING OF THE WILL 



SECTION IV 

THE AWAKENING OF THE WILL 

It is not an easy matter to explain precisely 
what the "Awakening of the Will" means, and 
yet it is something very real and very impor- 
tant. It is not, of course, that first dawn of 
wilfulness which occurs at a certain moment 
in child-life, and which ushers in manhood. It 
is not a first but a second spring. It is the 
sudden acquisition at a later period of life 
of the sense of willing. It comes to some but 
not to all, and it is fully intelligible to none, 
save to those to whom it comes. 

The " Awakening of the Will" resembles to 
some extent the dawn of the aesthetic sense. 
All men have, beyond doubt, a native sense of 
art. In few, however, is this sense wooed into 
actuality and developed. Very few ever be- 
come true aesthetes, but these few find them- 
selves at some time of their lives, and sud- 
denly, in possession of the "sense." It bursts 
open within their souls without much warning, 

49 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



like a blossom. Thereafter, they taste, and 
feel and understand. Around them, and at 
their elbows throng the many, who never have 
tasted, and never will taste or feel or under- 
stand. 

The sense of willing is however in many 
ways different from the aesthetic sense. It is in 
the first place a consciousness of a power to 
do rather than of a power to enjoy. It is ac- 
companied by a feeling of achieving, rather 
than by a feeling of appreciating. It is a sense- 
thrill, springing from a knowledge of one's 
power to act and to control. It is not a keen 
delight in received impressions of symmetry, 
variety and beauty. It is rather the recogni- 
tion of one's self in possession of one's own 
self-force. 

The phenomenon most closely connected with 
the sense of willing, is the will-feeling which 
has already been referred to. Will-feeling ac- 
companies every true will-act. When we make 
determined efforts to achieve a certain task, 
and when, so to speak, we are conscious of 
the steady heaving of the will in its straight, 
single purpose, we shall always find the will- 
feeling present. As we grow accustomed to 
making will-efforts, and to guiding in this or 
that direction the force of our will, we become 

50 



THE AWAKENING OF THE WILL 

( aware of a certain atmosphere of willing. It 
is unlike the atmosphere of thinking or im- 
agining. It is an atmosphere which seems to 
be pregnant with energy, activity and control. 
It braces and tones one up. We feel more 
virile and more self-confident for having been 
in it. It is the mental state of a brave sol- 
dier resolutely and undauntedly charging the 
enemy, or of an intrepid discoverer facing on- 
wards towards his goal — as did Columbus or 
Captain Scott. 

When the will-feeling grows habitual, and 
when we live more and more in the atmos- 
phere of willing which we have described, the 
coming of the will-sense, or the "Awakening 
of the Will," is at hand. The improved con- 
dition of the will seems to react on the whole 
body. We grow more alert, more strenuous 
and more energetic. Courage and power to 
achieve seem to be more firmly established 
within. The pleasure we experience in exer- 
cising our will grows. We delight in making 
efforts. To control our actions has now a \ 
strange fascination for us. To accomplish a 
difficult task by sheer will-force now causes 
us a thrill of manly satisfaction. We feel our- 
selves more and more in possession of will- 
force, and at last, sooner or later, the "sense 

51 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



of willing" dawns upon us — and we experience 
the " Awakening of the Will." 

It is hard to put in words or even to lead 
people to suspect by mere description what this 
sudden grasping of the reality of the will 
means. It is intensely reassuring and vivify- 
ing to know and grasp the fact of the will will- 
ing within us. It resembles the joy we feel at 
suddenly coming to know that one has done 
something great, or has inherited some valu- 
able possession. The treasure hidden within 
has been discovered by us, and we know that 
nobody can steal it, and that it is in our power 
to use it profitably. 

We have said that few men use their will. 
By that we mean that few men act as if re- 
alising the powers and limitations of their will 
and the best manner of putting it to work. 
They use their will as a Dervish would use a 
baseball bat or a Malay would use a pair of 
skates. They misuse their will and break and 
wreck it. They handle the most perfect and 
delicate of all instruments with the crude 
roughness of ignorance. Or else they allow 
their will to lie dormant, i ' to rust unburnished, 
not to shine in use." They live the lives of 
animals and their will is never awakened. And 
yet this "Awakening of the Will" is the very 

52 



THE AWAKENING OF THE WILL 

first task to which they should set themselves. 
They should call into life and activity this 
all-powerful force, if they have any ideal in 
life or any high ambition. 

The "Awakening of the Will ,, must, how- / 
ever, come from within. It cannot come from 
without. No external treatment or influence 
can awaken a man's will. He must do it him- 
self, and for himself. His will by willing must 
stir itself to life. It must be self-awakened, 
and it must keep itself awake by constant ex- 
ercise. Such exercise will win health and 
vigour for the will. 

Sometimes in a will-contest when things are 
going rather doubtfully and when we are in 
fear of giving in, a light suddenly breaks on 
us, and a new strength vibrates through us. 
We realise suddenly that we have a will and 
that it is there at work. "The will is there 
and the will can do it. ' ' The unknown mysteri- 
ous something is at work and we confide in it. 
We feel and know that it is there and we pin 
our hopes to it. We have of a sudden become 
aware of the power and force of the will. Be- 
yond question it is there. Beyond question 
it can achieve the task. Beyond question it is 
at work. 

The "Awakening of the Will" means some- 
53 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



thing very real. It marks the beginning of a 
new reign — the reign of the will. Spiritual 
vigour, will-force, energy and self-control 
characterise the new epoch. The will, always 
arbitrary and tyrannical, now rules with ab- 
solute sway. The sense of willing pervades 
one's life and its course is guided by purpose. 
We are no longer like withered .leaves ' ' carried 
hither and thither by every wind that blows.' ' 
We guide through our will our destiny. We 
purpose and we achieve. 

The " Awakening of the Will" is the outcome 
of long-continued effort. It is not won in a 
moment. It costs much. It means that a most 
powerful instrument for good or for evil is 
placed in our hands. Henceforth there will 
be more intensity and earnestness in all that 
we do. Our resolutions will be deep and strong 
and somewhat terrible in their sincerity. 

To live the life of the will means that we 
shall gradually fall away from weaker men. 
Antipathy will gradually spring up between 
them and us. Their ways are not our ways, 
nor are our ways theirs. Our lives will become 
more solitary and more independent. In spite 
of ourselves we shall grow somewhat cold 
and serious and rigid. Some of the flower and 
bloom of our natural manner will be lost and 

54 



THE AWAKENING OF THE WILL 

we shall be less lovable. Those who admire us 
from afar will talk vaguely of telepathy, 
psychic influence and magnetism, and use many 
meaningless terms. But they will little under- 
stand the secret of the change, and the cause 
of our power, for they will not know what the 
" Awakening of the Will" means. 

To summarise the foregoing explanation of 
the "Awakening of the Will," it means three 
things : 

(1) Consciousness of a new power. 

(2) Acquisition of a new habit. 

(3) Development of new resources. 

It means, firstly, that we come to recognise 
ourselves as "forces" capable of achieving and 
controlling. It means, secondly, that we are 
now in a position to use our force, habitually 
directing and employing it with confidence and 
ease. It means, thirdly, that we come into pos- 
session of a mine, from which, if we work and 
develop it aright, we can draw untold riches. 



55 



SECTION V 

THREE INTROSPECTIONS OF WILL- 
CONTESTS 



SECTION V 

THEEE INTKOSPECTIONS OF WILL-CONTESTS 1 

Foe a few moments I am hesitating before be- 
ginning to write this chapter. It seems to me 
that it will be a very difficult matter to give 
good examples of introspections of will-con- 
tests. On the other hand, I cannot help think- 
ing that it would be instructive and useful to 
my readers should I be able to do so, for they 
would then have a better understanding of my 
point of view with regard to the Will. 

Since I have written the word "Will (the last 
word of the last sentence) I have resolved to 
write this chapter. 

First Introspection 

When I say " resolved' ' I am doubtful if 
that is the right word to use, for my mind is 
not yet firmly made up about this matter. I 

1 This chapter is given, almost verbatim, as originally written. 

59 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



foresee that I may be quite unable to give good 
examples of introspections, and it may seem to 
me eventually more prudent to omit this chap- 
ter. However, my mind is quite made up on 
the point of attempting. I am going most cer- 
tainly to try. 

Now what exactly do I find at present in my 
mind with regard to this resolve? I feel an 
ennui and a disinclination to take much trouble, 
but I feel also a real interest in the work. I 
seem to have something before me which I 
am to reach or acquire. There is something 
which I am now to get at and attain. That 
want causes a certain irritation or unsettled- 
ness of mind. I am striving and not quite at 
my ease. The certain fixed resolve to try is a 
cause of satisfaction to me. So much is defi- 
nite, settled, satisfactory. On the other hand, 
the vagueness and hesitation about whether I 
shall write the whole chapter or not is a cause 
of uneasiness and distress. That hesitation is 
distressing, discouraging, and debilitating — I 
feel all that. The certainty of the minor reso- 
lution is on the other hand both encouraging 
and gratifying. 

. . . . . o . 

I paused for a moment when I arrived thus 
far and found it hard to restart. It is a vague 

60 



THREE INTROSPECTIONS 

and indefinite task in which I am engaged and 
so I want to be out of it as soon as possible. 
It seems to lead, not exactly nowhere, but to 
no place of importance. 

The knowledge that I am trying brings with 
it a feeling of satisfaction. Then I am con- 
scious that my will is guiding me and urging 
me on. I must obey it. It is ruling me. It 
seems unnecessarily serious and earnest about 
so trivial a thing. It seems somehow dragging 
me after it and I must follow — and indeed it 
seems something apart from me and yet having 
complete control over me. 

There are many things in my mind at pres- 
ent that I should like to describe, but it would 
take too long. Of course there are many feel- 
ings of pressure, fatigue, hurry, strain, ten- 
sion and other such-like. They do not matter, 
and it is on the will-phenomena that I must 
concentrate my attention. The feeling of yearn- 
ing, or want, or desire to achieve, is still there. 
Then the feeling of purpose — the will-feeling 
that I am acting under orders from the will is 
there, but obscurely. Now I seem to be writing 
more or less automatically. It does not cause 
much trouble and is not fatiguing. But back 
again to the Will! 

61 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



I must make a fair attempt. A something, a 
duty to be fulfilled is before me, and I feel a sure 
confidence that I shall not fail in my duty. In- 
deed, just now I am beginning to be conscious 
that I have fulfilled it already! There is a 
certain throbbing as it were, or rhythmic 
movement in my will-acts — keeping me still to 
the task. This throbbing is gentle and not un- 
pleasant. It marks a series of quiet, semi-con- 
scious efforts. From time to time as I go along 
my lips form the words, "I will do it. I will 
carry out my task." I know from old experi- 
ence of such tasks that I shall not be in fault. 
A sense of power and strength is also present. 
But this will-task is so easy and even agree- 
able ; and there is so little opposition provoked 
that the sense of power seems out of place. 
There has been no sharp contest, no hard-won 
victory. 

As I write now, and feel that what I have 
written may be of use, an intention of finishing 
this chapter is gradually taking shape. It may 
not be so hard, after all. A certain desire to 
do it well is awakening in me. It would not 
now cost the will very much to make the reso- 
lution of finishing the chapter. 

The background, for there is one, to all the 
phenomena I have mentioned is a dull, massive 

62 



THEEE INTROSPECTIONS 

kind of emotion, not painful, not cognitive, but 
apparently urging on to action or at least con- 
nected with action. It may be best described 
as conative. Of the will all I can say is that I 
know it is at work — I may say, constantly at 
work — I cannot of course see it in image as I 
should see a memory picture, but still I am in- 
timately conscious that it is at work. It seems 
to move as it were in its own sphere, colourless, 
soundless, and tasteless, but real, active, and 
vital. It does not seem anywhere — but still it 
is present. It seems to go in a direction, out- 
ward and onward, towards its object, which 
seems ahead ! So much and no more can I say 
of it. 

Second Introspection 

Let us suppose that we find ourselves stand- 
ing, on a rather cold evening, at the end of a 
spring-board, prepared for a plunge. We have 
come down to bathe, thinking it would be nice 
and warm, and now it has turned rather chilly. 
Something has to be done, we cannot return 
without bathing, and yet the water looks cold 
and uninviting. We cross our arms, rub our 
shins together, shiver a little, wish we were 
anywhere else, and hesitate. 

The task of plunging seems harder and 
63 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



harder, the longer we hesitate. We know that, 
and resolve to go in before very long — bnt tha't 
very long is indefinite. The thought of the 
coldness of the water, and of the nasty shock of 
the first contact, holds ns back. A certain in- 
ertia takes possession of ns and we find it hard 
to take action. We feel the board nnder onr 
feet, and the wind which tosses onr hair. We 
see and hear things very distinctly and yet we 
take little interest in what we see or hear. At 
the focus of consciousness is the thought — "I 
must after all go in." We know that if we 
brace up our wills to the task — if we will to 
will — that we shall be able to plunge in; but 
we refuse to will to will — we don't want to put 
that constraint on ourselves. It seems too 
cruel. 

Meanwhile things are getting worse and 
coming to a climax. We feel colder. The task 
seems harder. But the necessity of action is 
more and more stringent. We are gradually, 
although unconsciously, and seemingly against 
our will, being moved forward. We are tend- 
ing closer and closer towards the climax. Lit- 
tle now separates us from our fate. The will 
is no longer affected very much by motives for 
or against. Force of habit now decides all. 
For a moment our eyes rest on the water, the 

64 



THEEE INTROSPECTIONS 

image of ourselves swimming about grows 
more and more realistic. A momentary 
"blankness" seems to pass across the surface 
of consciousness. We become aware that an 
effort has just been made — and that our toes 
are kicking away from the board — we are 
now plunging into the water and the will-act 
is over. 

The critical point was reached just before we 
plunged. It was reached partly owing to the 
force of motives and partly owing to the hab- 
its of the will. The will was forced to act by 
the fatalism of the situation. Something had 
to be done. One cannot stand for long on the 
end of a spring-board. The precise moment 
of the plunge was determined by many factors 
and conditions. Some of these conditions are 
revealed in consciousness but many lie hidden. 
The act was not a good will-act. The element 
of hesitation and chance entered in and spoiled 
it. The will did not pronounce a definite hie 
et nunc! It allowed itself to be carried for- 
ward by things other than itself. In conse- 
quence, the resulting feeling was not one of sat- 
isfaction nor of moral grandeur. Indeed, it 
was rather one faintly tinged with shame, and 
faintly tinged with a certain disappointment. 
A sense of failure was there. 

65 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



Third Introspection 

The resolution I made was absolutely rigid. 
I would not go into the sitting-room all day. I 
was perfectly resolved on that. I simply would 
not go in! Then the thought came to me, but 
if, for instance, I heard some one calling for 
help in there. If some one was dying in it, 
would I go in? Then I saw that my resolution 
was conditioned. "I simply would not go in 
unless something extraordinary happened." 

My resolve was then definite, clear, practi- 
cal. In a way it was absolute. Under ordi- 
nary circumstances I would on no account go 
into the sitting-room that day! 

But what, if towards evening I were to for- 
get my resolution and go in? Then, I set my- 
self to obviate such a mischance by renewing 
and repeating my resolution and reminding 
myself of it again and again. I sat down and 
thought it out. I wrote it across the surface 
of my mind many times. I made will-acts and 
will-efforts about it. My resolution grew 
deeper and stronger and more earnest. I shud- 
dered to think that I should break it. I should 
have felt myself discredited and dishonoured. 
I walked quietly over and put my hand on the 

66 



THEEE INTROSPECTIONS 

handle of the door, and then drew it back as if 
with horror. "No! never! I must not go into 
the sitting-room to-day. " 

I felt that my resolution was unnatural, al- 
most hysterical. But I did not care. My in- 
terest lay in rendering it stronger and in 
guarding it intact. 

As a point of honour I felt it incumbent on 
me to take every step to prevent the breaking 
of my resolution. Besides reminding myself 
of it, and renewing and reenf orcing it by will- 
acts, I decided to avoid all occasions of break- 
ing it. Perhaps some visitors might come in 
the afternoon, and it might be my duty to show 
them into the sitting-room. I made up my 
mind to go out for a bicycle-ride, so as not 
to meet them. As I was going towards my 
bicycle I had to pass by the sitting-room. Sud- 
denly I heard a voice calling from within, 
" Jack, is that you?" I hesitated a moment — 
then without answering ran on, got my bike, 
and rode away. 

In the evening I was asked to come and play 
cards in the sitting-room, but I said, rather 
awkwardly, I think, "No, I've got a headache 
and I'll go to bed early." 

All I cared about now was to hold out for a 
few hours more, till midnight, so as not to 

67 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



violate my promise. It had, of course, become 
an obsession for me. The thought was in my 
mind nearly all day. I was worried about it, 
but felt at the same time a real thrill of pride 
in my fidelity. I felt that, in this at least, I 
was a man of iron will. For $1000 I would not 
have broken that promise. Of course, I hoped, 
and was sure, that no one would offer me 
$1000 to go into the sitting-room. But still, 
strange to say, there seemed to my feverish 
mind some slight possibility of such a thing 
happening ! 

At last night came and I slept. I had held 
out manfully. The task was, of course, ex- 
cessively easy and trivial, but the amount of 
will-force that I put into observing it was very 
considerable! I had indeed increased enor- 
mously the difficulty of the task by calling up 
such enormous efforts to fulfil it. 

The effect of this experiment on my char- 
acter was considerable. It gave me a taste 
of the splendid courage required to make an 
iron resolution. It gave me a great respect 
for such resolutions, and the moral pride and 
satisfaction which I experienced showed me 
very clearly that resolutions bring their own 
rewards. 



68 



THREE INTROSPECTIONS 

From the three introspections which I have 
given, readers will be able to judge what the 
nature of will-phenomena is. They will under- 
stand too the necessity of exercising themselves 
in introspecting and of carefully analysing 
their own will efforts. 



69 



SECTION VI 
THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT 



SECTION VI 

THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT 

The effect of the will on the intellect is worthy 
of deep study. There is, of course, a certain 
antagonism between the will and the intellect, 
as there is between the will and physical 
strength. The will can be perfectly calm and 
at ease while mnscles are straining and limbs 
racked with pain. So, too, the will can be 
calm and at ease while the intellect is feverish- 
ly ranging in the fields of thought. The will 
goads and drives on the intellect, just as it 
goads and drives on the body. There is no 
doubt that it accounts for mental vigour and 
that it improves the intellect by making it take 
plenty of exercise. It forces it to be sharp 
and thorough. It forces it also to concentrate, 
now on this object and now on that. It taxes 
its strength, but at the same time it calls up 
and infuses energy into its activities. The will 
when working awakens, as we have seen, a cer- 
tain atmosphere of mind, of which we are keen- 

73 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



ly aware, and which tends for the moment to 
dim our consciousness of other mental phe- 
nomena. Still, this will-atmosphere is so 
healthful and bracing that it reacts beneficially 
on the intellect. Indeed it does not seem too 
much to say that the more and better we will, 
the more and better we shall think. For the 
toning up of the will seems somehow or other, 
and the reason is not very clear, to tone up and 
brace up the intellect as well. 

Knowing and willing are, of course, man's 
highest and chief functions. They are the light 
and force of life. Intellect shows the way, and 
will supplies the driving power. Without in- 
tellect, will would be a blind impulse, dark 
and dangerous as a cyclone in the night. With- 
out will, intellect would be a brilliant but a 
vain flash. It would be pretty, of course, as 
the wan glimmer of a light-house set in a sun- 
down blaze, but quite as useless. 

The chief service that the intellect renders 
to the will is to study and take mental pos- 
session of the end or bonum. It sees the value 
of this object, and weighs its relations, merits 
and deficiencies. It holds it in image before 
the emotions that love or aversion may be 
aroused. It obeys the will inasmuch as it 
examines the favourable or unfavourable 

74 



THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT 

points in the bonum and supplies positive and 
negative motives for the process of delibera- 
tion, which precedes the final choice of the will. 

The services that the will renders to the 
intellect are perhaps less direct. The will, 
while utilising the intellect as a kind of search- 
light to be turned hither and thither, improves 
it by this very exercise. It makes it keener, 
and more capable of prolonged attention. It 
may, of course, injure it by overwork, or it 
may allow it to lie fallow too long, but on the 
whole its influence is for good. The pressure 
of the will tells for a higher and more strenu- . 
ous intellectual life, and as we have pointed 
out the toning up of the will means the toning 
up and bracing up of the intellect as well. 

An important difference between the will 
and the intellect lies in the fact that the for- 
mer is interested, while the latter is utterly 
disinterested in all its actions. The intellect 
has no ulterior purpose in knowing. It learns 
because it sees, but not in order to see. No 
doubt, it learns more and more, the better it 
is in quality, and the longer its period of ap- 
plication. But it does not acquire knowledge 
for use or for pleasure — "it only sees because 
it must." 

On the other hand, the will always wills to 
75 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



gain some end. It is avariciously interested. 1 
It does not move, save to acquire something. 
It stirs only to get nearer to its end, its bonum. 
It makes the intellect, and the memory and all 
the other faculties cooperate in its own inter- 
ested career. It rules like a tyrant, with ab- 
solute and selfish sway. It imposes its orders 
on all the little functionaries of the state of 
man. It is utterly utilitarian, and in no way 
artistic. It is not beauty, but force. 

The intellect in face of the will is, in a 
sense, a slave. It must obey. It must go 
whither the will points out. But still it is 
a truthful, and, in a way, an independent slave. 
If commanded to do so, it will set itself to 
study mathematics, but will never be forced 
into believing that the three angles of a tri- 
angle are unequal to two right angles, nor will 
it ever be coerced into rejecting the conclusion 
of a logical syllogism of which it admits the 

1 St. Teresa, who was a profound psychologist, compares the 
firm, patient will to the prudent bee which remains in the hive 
in order to extract honey from the flowers which its compan- 
ions bring it. "For if, instead of staying in the hive, all the 
bees went out one after the other, how could the honey be 
made?" Elsewhere she refers to the relations between intel- 
lect and will in ecstasies. "The understanding stays its dis- 
cursive operations, but the will remains fixed in God by love; 
it rules as a sovereign.' ' {Vide, "The Psychology of the 
Saints," by H. Joly, pp. 113, 90.) 

76 



THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT 

major and minor premises. It is an upright 
and conscientious slave that can never he 
lashed into denying evident truths. In this 
respect it is independent of the will, and de- 
fies its master's power. 

While intellect and will are, by nature, ut- 
terly different and radically distinct functions, 
it is remarkable how closely connected they are 
when we consider a concrete act of willing. 
Professor James well said, "We reach the 
heart of our enquiry into volition when we ask 
by what process it is that the thought of any 
object comes to prevail stably in the mind." 
Indeed, it is a fact of common observation that 
in choosing, it is the alternative which some- 
how attracts and holds attention, that usually 
wins. It is better known and better under- 
stood, and this very familiarity tells largely 
in its favour when the moment for the act of 
choice arrives. It more fully possesses the 
intellect, and is more fully possessed by it. 
It prevails in the mind. "It is clearly and 
definitely known." What is called volitional 
attention is focused on it. It holds that at- 
tention. The other alternative seems strange, 
unfamiliar, and out in the cold. The latter has 
the worse position. It is in an unfavourable 
light. It comes to be judged harshly and per- 

77 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



haps unfairly — and is, in such cases, often re- 
jected. 

Now, the answer to Professor James's query, 
"By what process is it that such an object 
has prevailed stably in the mind?" is to be 
found in analysing intellectual interest. This 
interest reposes, no doubt, on a basis of men- 
tal habits, and has for its correlative some 
subtle, obscure attractiveness in the alterna- 
tive itself. Be that as it may, the fact of the 
importance of this intellectual interest in the 
process of choosing, shows clearly how closely 
connected will and intellect are in volitional 
acts. 

To refer briefly to experimental researches 
in will psychology made by the present writer, 
it seems that in choosing, much depends on the 
"clearness and definiteness" of the knowledge 
which one has of the alternatives. "The cen- 
tral fact of the researches we have been de- 
scribing is that when a choice has to be made 
between two alternatives, the choice is quick 
and easy in proportion as the values of 
the alternatives are clearly and definitely 
known." 2 To continue the quotation: "In this 
last phrase lies, as it seems to us, the practical 

'"Motive Force and Motivation Tracks/' Longmans, 1911, 
p. 215. 

78 



THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT 

solution of the whole problem of how to ac- 
quire a power of good motivation — and ulti- 
mately of how to choose well. We must clearly 
and definitely determine the values of alterna- 
tives, and that, of course, as far as possible, 
long before the choice begins. "We must have 
our fixed scale of values. We must have a scale 
of values for every sphere in which we live, 
and for our life as a whole. There must be 
a top-value, a ne plus ultra, with which nothing 
whatever is comparable. That top-value must 
act as a charm, it must electrify us, hypnotise 
us. It must be a top-value in all reality. 

"Then again there must be a lowest, a bot- 
tom-value; something which must never be 
chosen; something which must be rejected on 
every occasion as absolutely loathsome. 

"There will be also middle-values and per- 
haps neutral values. Into such details it is not 
necessary to enter. The main fact, the central 
fact must always be kept in mind, that the scale 
must be clearly and definitely known; in con- 
sequence it must be fixed and rigidly parti- 
tioned off, each grade from that above and 
from that below. ' ' 3 

The will is therefore in a certain sense the 
handmaid of her slave. She leads and com- 

8 op. cit., p. 216. 

79 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



mands the intellect, but she is strongly inclined 
to obey the dictates of the latter. Nay more, 
even when the intellect does not speak with 
a sure or clear voice, the will is inclined to 
follow in the track of mere intellectual in- 
terest. That is to say, given two alternatives 
of equal positive value, the one which seems 
the more familiar, even though it be in no way 
greater in value, is usually the one chosen. 
Often too it happens that the intellect points 
out the way to the will in so imperious a man- 
ner, that it seems as if it were, so to speak, 
taking the will by the arm and pushing her 
along in that direction. 

M. Payot 4 points out very well how weak 
' ' ideas " are, of themselves, in provoking ac- 
tion. He admits, of course, their indirect force, 
inasmuch as they awaken the passions, which 
in turn strive to coerce the will. But, of them- 
selves, and unbacked by emotion, they are but 
thin and lifeless shadows. His underlying 
thought is that the consideration of what is ab- 
stract in contradistinction to the considera- 
tion of the concrete, accompanying feelings, 
has little effect on the will. ' < Truthfulness ' ' 
as a mere "idea," without vivid imagery and 

4 " L 'Education de la Volonte, ' ' Alcan, Paris. 
80 



THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT 

awakened impulses, is useless to save a boy 
from giving way to an advantageous false- 
hood. If, however, the idea awakens a sense 
of shame or a lively desire to be honourable, 
then the boy will avoid the lie. 

M. Payot lays great stress on the necessity 
of meditation and reflection with a view to 
will-training. Recognising the close ties be- 
tween intellect and will, he emphasises the 
importance of making the work of the will 
easier, by a cordial cooperation on the part of 
the intellect. Further, he shows the need of 
enlisting the forces of emotion and passion on 
behalf of the will, so that man as a whole may 
work for his own self-perfection. 

There are, of course, many speculative ques- 
tions with regard to the relations existing be- 
tween the will and the intellect. Into these, 
however, it is by no means necessary to en- 
ter. It suffices to have shown how important 
it is, in view of will-training, that will and 
intellect should work in harmony, for their mu- 
tual advantage, and for their mutual perfec- 
tion. 



81 



SECTION VII 
THE SICK WILL 



section vn 

THE SICK WLLL 

The more common method of classifying mala- 
dies of the will is that of Professor James, 
which is easily understood. Starting from the 
fact that in each will there is an impulse to 
act, and a power to restrain action, which he 
calls inhibition, he divides will-maladies into 
two grand classes. In the first he places those 
wills in which the tendency to act is exces- 
sive. In the second he places those in which 
inhibitory power is abnormally great. 

The first class is that of impulsive and im- 
petuous wills. The second is that of phleg- 
matic and lethargic wills. The former are 
over-active, the latter are under-active. The 
former class are the dare-devils, the fire- 
brands, the passionate, choleric men who throw 
to the winds all counsels of prudence. The lat- 
ter class are the over-cautious, the listless and 
indolent, the sluggards and "logs," whom no 
exhortation can provoke to action. 

85 



STEENGTH OF WILL 



Basing ourselves for the moment on this di- 
vision we find many extraordinary examples, 
referred to by M. Eibot, M. Janet and other 
psychologists. In some cases of abnormal 
lethargy, or powerlessness to will (abuleia), 
men have been known to live for years like ab- 
solute logs incapable of effort. Some have, in 
spite of every encouragement, although their 
bodily organs seemed perfectly sound, been in- 
capable of plucking up courage to raise a glass 
of water to their lips, or to step across the 
threshold of their own doors. Some men are 
utterly unable to resist the impulse of some 
idea-force — it may be that of washing their 
hands, or brushing their clothes, or of striv- 
ing to kill some near and dear relation. The 
inhibitory power of the will seems to disap- 
pear totally. Cases of utter powerlessness to 
resist the solicitation of passion are frequent. 
Drunkards have faced death in order to ob- 
tain a drink, and have even mutilated their own 
bodies in order to excite pity and so obtain 
the satisfaction of their desire by getting a 
glass of brandy. Under hypnotic influence, 
many subjects are found so bereft of will- 
power that they act as mere tools in the hands 
of their hypnotisers. 

It is not, however, with such extreme types 
86 



THE SICK WILL 



of will-disease that we are here concerned, but 

rather with the minor types which are met with 

every day. Indeed, few among us are wholly 

free from will-disease of some kind or other. 

/ Almost all of us are either too impetuous, or 

I too indecisive, or hyper-active, or hyper- 

^ emotional, or in some lesser degree incapable 

of willing well. 

The words which, in familiar conversation, 
we apply to people we know, show that will- 
maladies are not uncommon. We freely use 
about others such words as "listless," "in- 
dolent," "fire-brand," "sentimental," "un- 
ready," "phlegmatic," "hesitating," "hot- 
headed," "inert," "fussy." We say of one 
man that "he can never make up his mind," 
and of another that "the moment he gets an 
idea into his head he's off to do it." In each 
case we refer directly to some will-malady or 
other. Some men we find to be bullies towards 
inferiors, and cowards before those in author- 
ity, and we know that there is something wrong 
with their will. We know cases of men — minor 
examples of Napoleon or Parnell — who are in 
some respects giants of will-strength and in 
other respects mere pawns of passion. We are 
conscious too of certain men whose quiet con- 
sistency of conduct, and whose patient, perse- 

87 



i 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



vering efforts in their life's-work, stamp them 
as men of healthy and strong will. 

Among the more ordinary will-maladies, 
which are, at the same time, particularly detri- 
mental, we find "hesitation" and "impulsive- 
ness." Of these we shall treat at some length. 
We shall then touch briefly on some other types 
which are also of consequence. 

(1) Hesitation 

Hesitation may occur before any will-act, 
and may vary in intensity, duration, and even 
in quality. At times it is accompanied by pain- 
ful oscillations to and fro between alternatives. 
At times it is an acute state of suspense and 
helplessness. The mind seeming to hang in a 
kind of agony between two decisions — per- 
plexed and bewildered and utterly at a loss 
what to do. Weariness, dejection, and discour- 
agement are experienced, and a longing takes 
possession of the soul to get out of the hesita- 
tion anyhow, somehow. As a result, the choice 
or decision which is made, is usually a poor, 
slipshod one. Some extrinsic, unimportant mo- 
tive prevails, and the will acts in pique or de- 
spair. Eegret and disappointment are felt 
afterwards, and the mind feels fagged and 

88 



THE SICK WILL 



wearied. The choices so made are usually ir- 
responsible and inconsistent — this, indeed, is 
the chief evil of hesitation. 

"It destroys all possibility of acting on 
strictly reasonable grounds, of deciding for in- 
trinsic motives. Subjects in hesitation seize 
on the first motive which comes to mind, no 
matter how unimportant. To save themselves 
the pain of further deliberation they choose 
recklessly: 'I couldn't arrive at a decision. 
Then I preferred B without really knowing the 
reason'; 'I chose X to escape the hesitation, 
without having any conscious motive for X.' 
Such motivations, in which purely extrinsic 
motives win, naturally lead to habits of ran- 
dom choosing." 1 

Now, what are the conditions of hesitation? 
Strange to say, hesitation is in great part a 
habit. It grows on one, not so much on account 
of any defect in one's will, as on account of 
having often hesitated before. It is, in part, a 
nervous malady, and the laws of association 
have much to say to nervousness. If we hesi- 
tate once in a certain circumstance, we are like- 
ly to hesitate again in similar circumstances. 

"Prescinding from the personal character of 

1 " A Kesearch in Will Psychology, > ' p. 177. By E. Boyd Bar- 
rett. Longmans, 1911. 

89 



f 



STEENGTH OF WILL 



the subjects, we found that, if having made a 
choice they allowed themselves to repine over 
it, or to be annoyed for having made it; or if 
they made a choice in a haphazard, irrespon- 
sible manner, that is, without careful motiva- 
tion, or if they chose without clear knowledge 
of the relative values of the alternatives, they 
were extremely likely to hesitate when the same 
choice occurred again. Indeed, careless and 
superficial valuations, and futile repinings over 
past choices, seem to predispose strongly 
towards future hesitations." 2 

A more general condition of hesitation, how- 
ever, is to be found. 

' ' Hesitations occur much more frequently in 
disagreeable choices, and seem in a certain 
sense to be conditioned by them, just as they, 
in a certain sense, seem to condition incon- 
sistencies. Indeed the unpleasant experience 
of choosing between two disagreeable sub- 
stances tended to inhibit volitional functioning 
— and to justify the theory formulated by Mr. 
Stout: 'In principle it seems a safe generali- 
sation that agreeable experience is favourable, 
and disagreeable experience is unfavourable, to 
the effective discharge of mental functions. ' " 3 



2 op. cit., p. 173. 

3 op. cit., p. 175. 

90 



THE SICK WILL 



Hesitation is, then, a veritable disease of the 
will. It grows and spreads, exhausting the 
strength of the will and causing it to deterio- 
rate. It is found both in phlegmatic and im- 
pulsive characters, but is naturally most com- 
mon in the former. It besets the will, espe- 
cially when the latter is fatigued and debili- 
tated — whereas it is less potent for evil when 
body and will are in vigorous health. 

(2) Impulsiveness 

Impulse is one of the most interesting and 
one of the strangest features of the will. It 
is at the same time a valuable asset and a dan- 
gerous possession. In very many cases — 
usually, we may say — it leads to harm. On the 
other hand, without impulse we could do noth- 
ing great or difficult. It does most harm in 
persons of a hedonic (pleasure-seeking) tem- 
perament. Such persons are often quite re- 
solved to follow a certain course of action, 
when a sudden psychic movement in another 
direction occurs, and all their plans are upset. 
Nothing is more frequent than the occurrence 
of impulsive choices, due to hidden, strong, 
conative tendencies, which are hard to analyse. 
They occur at various phases of the choice 

91 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



process, sometimes at the beginning, and some- 
times at the end. The sndden force of a new 
hedonic attraction suffices at times to make us 
change our choices quite automatically. Our 
hand seems to turn from that to which it is 
tending, and to take something else. To quote 
an example. ... " I saw Z at the left and un- 
derstood it immediately as good, and without 
delay I wished to take it. In the meantime I 
was making a movement well directed towards 
Z. I had reacted, but at that moment I saw 
K. My hand turned as I saw and understood 
that K was better, and I took K. The direction 
of my hand formed a curve. At what stage of 
the phenomenon I was when I saw and under- 
stood K I don't know. I was quite near Z. My 
hand at the last instant took K. I was content 
in taking K; it was much better than Z." 

Just as we experience sudden attractions and 
impulses towards an object, we experience sud- 
den repulsions and impulses from objects. 
Spontaneous dynamic movements occur, an 
output of ill-directed force. We go towards 
or away from something with speed and with 
strength. Our reserve store of energy is called 
upon, and the wind fills our sails, and we are 
off, whither we know not. Carried away, im- 
pelled, attracted, drawn, magnetised, coerced 

92 



THE SICK WILL 



by hidden power — whatever be the best word 
to describe psychic impulse — the fact is un- 
doubted. 

"In hysterics, epileptics, and criminals of 
the neurotic class, called degeneres by French 
authors, there is," writes Professor James, 4 
' ' such a native feebleness in the mental machin- 
ery, that before the inhibitory ideas can arise, 
the impulsive ones have already discharged 
into act. In persons healthy-willed by nature, 
bad habits can bring about this condition, es- 
pecially in relation to particular sorts of im- 
pulse. ' ' 

Impulsiveness often causes a sudden col- 
lapse of will. Unexpectedly all gives way and 
we fall to the ground in a heap. It is not so 
much that our will is running away with us, 
as that our will has run away and left us. In- 
hibitory power is absolutely wanting. This 
happens most frequently in people of a high- 
strung nature. "The hysterical tempera- 
ment," writes Professor James, 5 "is the play- 
ground par excellence of this unstable equilib- 
rium. One of these subjects will be filled with 
what seems the most genuine and settled aver- 
sion to a certain line of conduct, and the very 

4 ' ' Text-book of Psychology, ' ' p. 438. 
5 op. cit., p. 438. 

93 



i 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



/ 



( 



next instant follows the stirring of temptation 
and plunges in it up to the neck." 



(3) Inactive Wills 

Many people seem to glide along without 
ever taking a strenuous part in life's battle. 
They go whither inclination or passion leads 
them. They never become masters of their own 
destinies, nor do they ever control their ac- 
tions in a purposeful way. They carry out no 
resolution, pursue no end, make no sacrifice. 
The life of the will is unknown to them. They 
drive no plough across the fields of life. They 
" droop and drowse," inert, and indifferent, 
listless and will-less. Their existence is a 
burden to them, for they have created no in- 
terest. Debilitated and aimless, they are un- 
able to stimulate themselves. All is lethargy, 
weariness and depression, all is weight with- 
out strength. 

For such men, the one hope is to awaken the 
will, and to stir it to life. This can be done 
in one way alone and it can only be done grad- 
ually. A beginning must be made by effort. A 
small effort at first, and that repeated daily. 
Then a greater effort and so on. 

94 



THE SICK WILL 



For such men, the exercises which we shall 
suggest will afford hope. 

(4) "I simply can't ivill" 

We meet men who are dispirited, and dis- 
couraged, who tell us that they can't make any 
more efforts. They have tried so often and 
failed, that they have no longer any hope. They 
are not like the men of inactive wills, of whom 
we have just treated. They are superior to 
them in every way, for they have made efforts. 
But now further effort seems useless, and im- 
possible. 

This state of mind, "I simply can't will," 
is due in part to ill-health and debilitation, but 
in still greater part it is due to an excessive 
ignorance of psychology. ' ' Of course, you can 
still will. Of course, you can still make efforts, 
and you will be able to do so to the last hour 
of your life. But you are trying to do things 
beyond your strength. You can't make those 
efforts because they are too great. That is 
why you have failed. 

' ' But make small efforts which are well with- 
in your strength. Make them daily, and make 
them regularly. Build up the health of your 
will once more. Eeawaken the life of your will. 

95 



STEENGTH OF WILL 

* * ■ 



Strengthen yourself, patiently, by well regu- 
lated exercises, and then you will be well able 
for the big efforts which at present you find 
too great.' ' 

(5) Over-active Wills 

Some men seem to "spread themselves out" 
too much. They diffuse their energies in every 
direction, and speed madly in the wake of every 
fresh idea. They exercise no discrimination. 
They retain no supply of energy for important 
duties. They are over-active, excitable, hot- 
brained, fussy, and unpractical. They waste 
and misuse their will-force. All their strength 
seems to burn itself out in a sudden, useless 
blaze, and they remain limp and impotent. 

This type of malady is, of course, allied to 
"impulsiveness." It is common and so seri- 
ous that it renders men otherwise gifted, use- 
less and harmful. It springs from restlessness 
of mind, an eagerness and uneasiness to be do- 
ing something, to be active. We can't keep 
still, or hold ourselves in, or rest idle. We 
must expend energy. Our minds experience a 
whirl of ideas and plans. We want to do this 
and that, to go hither and thither, to seek here 
and there. We are soaked in impulsiveness, 



THE SICK WILL 



and the spirit of striving. We are tending, 
attracted, drawn or repelled in a hundred ways. 
For this type of malady the only cure seems 
to be to acquire a habit of concentrated action. 
To practise oneself in making a resolution and 
devoting oneself wholly, with all one's strength, 
to the carrying out of that resolution and none 
other. In this way a habit of focusing will- 
force will be gradually won. 

>| (6) Emotional Wills 

Some men are predominantly emotional and 
sentimental in character. Their souls are full 
of sensible impulses and movements. They 
live by feeling rather than by thought or ac- 
tion. They are steeped and soaked in emotion 
and there is no output of action. The will is 
so swathed and wrapped around and closely 
hugged by feelings and yearnings and senti- 
mental impulses that it is unable to break 
through and act. Such men find it hard to re- 
alise that there is an infinite difference between j 
will and feeling. Their only achievements take | 
place in dreamland. The will's energy, such I 
as it is, is spent in imaginary activity. No l 
lotus nor opiate could produce so dulling an 
effect as the breath of this deep sentimentality. 

97 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



It drugs the soul as opium never drugged it. 
For such men the obvious necessity is to se- 
cure that a certain amount of deliberate, pur- 
poseful activity should enter into their lives. 
This activity, at first, may well take the form 
of will-tasks such as we shall presently suggest. 
By means of them, they will gradually obtain 
control and possession of their own wills, and 
will be enabled to utilise them with effect in the 
various circumstances of their lives. 

(7) The Over-practical Will 

There is a type of will directly opposed to 
that which we have just been considering, which 
we shall call, for want of a better name, the 
over-practical will. This kind of will is found 
frequently in active, busy men who are wholly 
immersed in their daily plans and schemes 
and duties. Such men lose the sense of 
proportion, and while they carry out with 
admirable determination the tiny purposes of 
their daily lives, they seem almost wholly be- 
reft of lofty ideals and high aims. They are 
taken up entirely with the hie et nunc. They 
never look far ahead. They never try to syn- 
thetise their various aims into one grand pur- 
pose. They are essentially "small" men. 

98 



THE SICK WILL 



They have brought to perfection the quality 
of practical effectiveness in their will, but they 
have failed to find a scope for the larger and 
broader will-impulse which consists in striv- 
ing after the Summum Bonum, the Supreme 
Good. 

They reduce the will to a kind of penny-in- 
the-slot machine. It works admirably and re- 
turns at once a little made-up parcel when 
called on to do so. But it languishes and fails, 
all the time, for want of something greater and 
higher to fight for and to aim at. 

(8) The Indefinitive Will 

Many people seem strangely unconscious as 
to whether or not a will-act has taken place 
within them. They seem not to know whether 
or not they have really made a choice or a de- 
cision. They are unaware whether or not they 
mean their choice or resolution. Not only is 
there a sad lack of finality about their will-act, 
as in the case of people who hesitate, but also 
there is a strange ignorance as to what their 
state of will is. 

An example will perhaps make this matter 
clearer. 

Let us suppose that a friend, A, is thinking 
99 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



of writing a letter to a man called B. He 
says to you: "I'm going to write to B to- 
day.' ' A few moments later he says: "By 
the way, I don't think I'll write to B to-clay, as 
I'm too busy, and to-morrow will do as well." 
After a minute or two he begins again, and 
you listen impatiently: "I think I'll write to- 
day, all the same, as otherwise B will think it 
queer, and may get the idea that I'm offended 
with him. Yes, I'll certainly write to-day." 
You listen quietly for another announcement, 
as you somehow now feel that A is quite likely 
to change his mind once more. Sure enough, 
after a certain interval, you hear him speak 
with a tone of petulance: "Look, although I 
made up my mind to write to B to-day, I'm 
not going to do so. On the whole, it is better 
to wait till to-morrow, as I shall be in town 
this evening, and I may be able to call on him. ' ' 
Such instances of changes of mind are, we 
all know, very frequent. There is one point in 
them worthy of remark and of considerable 
importance. It is this : Each change, however 
pitiful, brings one nearer to the climax. Each 
change is expressed with a growing finality, 
and there seems to be really a slight, however 
slight, increase of determination in each new 
decision. This fact strengthens the supposition 

100 



THE SICK WILL 



that it is only gradually and bit by bit that the 
indecisive person comes to know his own will 
in a matter of this kind. No doubt the will was 
at work but it was working unknown to the 
person's self, and in too indefinitive and un- 
certain a way. 

There are many other types of will-maladies 
which merit attention, but on which we cannot 
now dwell. Some wills are over-confident, 
some are too timorous and too prone to qualify 
every resolution made. 6 Other wills are in- 
jured by an excessive tendency towards au- 
tomatism. However, we must now turn to con- 
sider the causes of will-maladies. 

6 " In the irresolute, ' ' writes Professor James, ' ' all decisions 
are provisional and liable to be reversed; in the resolute they 
are settled once for all and not disturbed again. " 



101 



SECTION VIII 
CAUSES OF WILL-MALADIES 



SECTION VIII 

CAUSES OF WILL-MALADIES 

Pkescinding from character as conditioned by 
heredity, the factors conditioning the efficiency 
of will may be divided into two classes, physi- 
cal and psychical. The "physical factors' ' af- 
fect the will through the body, and the "psychi- 
cal factors" affect it through the soul. It is 
only when body and soul are in normal con- 
dition that the will is perfectly normal. It 
may be well, now, to enumerate some of these 
factors; first, the physical, and, secondly, the 
psychical. Among the former we find: 

(1) Ill-health and bodily suffering. — Through 
ill-health and suffering the strength and physi- 
cal energy of the body is diminished, and the 
body fails to co-operate well with the will. The 
will seems debilitated as well as the body, and 
hence it is, that men of strong character, when 
imprisoned in unwholesome dungeons, starved, 
and ill-treated, have been often reduced to sub- 
mission ; while they never would have given in 

105 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



had they been in good health and well treated. 

(2) Fatigue. — Physical fatigue also so ex- 
hausts the strength of the body that it is un- 
able often to co-operate with volitional effort. 
The effort expended in climbing, say, a high 
mountain, or walking a long journey, reduces 
one to a condition of quasi-moral weakness. 
The will then seems somewhat less well able to 
make an effort or to exercise control. Hence, 
in part, the volitional difficulty of getting up 
to continue a long journey when one is already 
tired out. 

(3) Locality, climate, hour of the day. — As 
animals who dwell we are much affected by our 
physical surroundings. We adapt ourselves 
unconsciously to our environment. We grow 
gay or sad, energetic or lethargic, according as 
hour and weather and scenery affect us. The 
mad hilarity of the mountain-top is as unreal 
as the heavy moodiness of the swamp. The 
tingling gayness of the bright morning is as 
fictitious as the dull ennui of the cold, wet aft- 
ernoon. Still the will, as the body, is affected 
by and re-acts to such stimuli. 1 

1 An interesting quotation from St. Teresa may here be 
given {Vide, "Life," p. 114): "Such is our melancholy 
condition on this earth. As long as our poor soul remains 
united to this mortal body, it is a prisoner and shares the 
infirmities of the body. It is affected by the weather and by 

106 



CAUSES OF WILL-MALADIES 

(4) Physical Exercise. — During violent phys- 
ical exercise, as riding, racing, or playing foot- 
ball, when both body and mind are excited, the 
will is less capable of normal activity. Still 
less is the will capable of normal control in a 
fierce fight, when passion is inspiring our ut- 
most physical efforts. 

(5) Other physical conditions also interfere 
with or affect will-functioning. For instance, 
to be held or tied so as to be unable to breathe 
and move normally. For to every volitional 
act, a bodily movement, however slight, corre- 
sponds. Now, if the latter is prevented or cur- 
tailed, a certain jar occurs in the functioning of 
the will. 

The psychical factors conditioning the ac- 
tivity of the will are manifold. Some of the 
more important deserve mention: 

(1) Passion. — Mental excitement and pas- 
sion of all kinds, together with such moods as 
melancholy, despair, or great hilarity, inter- 
fere with good willing. If we are under the in- 
fluence of strong emotion, or if we feel the glow 
of enthusiasm and excitement, we are in a bad 

variations of health, and it often finds itself without any fault 
on its part incapable of doing what it would like to do. . . . 
Forcing only aggravates and prolongs the evil. Such persons 
ought to understand that they are ill." 

107 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



condition for willing. At such a time it would 
be foolish to make an important choice or de- 
cision. Excitement may be described as a kind 
of poison. The body and mind are reduced to 
an abnormal state, and to some extent incapaci- 

r tated. The will, the most sensitive of spiritual 

\ "functions, feels the effect most. 

(2) Restlessness of mind. — Often some of 
our mental faculties are hyperactive. It may 
be that a mad stream of fantastic images is 
whirling through our minds, or that our brains 
are working feverishly at some problem. Per- 

>v haps, through worry, thoughts or fears are re- 
^curring again and again, and our minds are 
restless and agitated. If so, the will has but 
a poor chance of functioning normally. 

(3) Lethargy of mind. — Often we feel our 
minds dull and slow and empty. No thoughts 
or images will come. A heavy inertia seems to 
take possession of us, and we grow apathetic 
and stupid. Such a condition is, likewise, un- 
suitable for willing. 

(4) Influence of other Wills. — The silent 
influence of other mils, whether hypnotic, or 
telepathic, or simply the ordinary influence of 
example, reduces our wills to a slightly abnor- 
mal state. We are caught and interested by 
some other mind, and are led hither and 

108 



CAUSES OF WILL-MALADIES 

thither, over hills and across seas, soothed, 
consoled, or excited. We feel ourselves bound 
and held somewhat by an alien will. We real- 
ise that will moves will; that will is subject to 
will; that will tends to harmonise with and to 
move in sympathy with will. WTien we feel 
ourselves thus subject to some other will, we 
need to be doubly cautious before making a 
choice or a decision. 

(5) Inactivity of Will. — If for some reason, 
or simply through neglect, we have failed to ex- 
ercise our wills for some time, if we have lived 
without making uphill efforts, and without ex- 
ercising much self-control, we shall find our 
wills in part atrophied. Our chief instrument 
has been out of use and has grown rusty, 
and consequently it is less likely now to func- 
tion satisfactorily. 

Many other psychical factors influence the 
will, above all the various habits of thought or 
feeling which we have acquired. On these, 
however, it is not necessary to dwell here. 

As regards the causes of will-maladies which 
are of such a kind that they may be removed, 
three in particular are worthy of attention. 

(1) Want of Exercise. — It is obvious that un- 
less the will is duly and scientifically exercised 

109 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



it will, like other faculties, fall into a kind of de- 
cay. 

(2) Want of Knowledge of the Will. — Unless 
we have a certain knowledge of how the 
will works, and of how to make choices and 
resolutions well, it is obvious that we shall mis- 
use the will. Were we to exercise the memory 
indiscriminately without any knowledge of its 
nature and capabilities, it would beyond doubt 
be injured and perhaps permanently destroyed. 
This, indeed, happens in many cases. And it 
is a matter of common knowledge that it is 
owing to the over-burdening and over-working 
of the memory in modern educational systems 
that so many men find themselves, while still 
in the prime of life, incapable of retaining with 
accuracy proper names and figures. 

Want of knowledge of will-psychology leads 
to our neglect of calling up to the help of the 
will our other psychical resources. Indeed, the 
work of the will would, as M. Payot points out, 
be enormously lightened and facilitated, if we 
had the art of using the intellect and the emo- 
tions in conjunction with the will, while Pro- 
fessor Forster well writes : 

"Many young people are apt to be depressed 
by a continual breaking down of self-control 
and by failure of their oft-renewed good inten- 

110 



CAUSES OF WILL-MALADIES 

tions. Frequently tliese unfortunate results 
occur because they do not understand the psy- 
chology of will-power." 2 

(3) Want of Confidence in the Will. — This 
cause is of course subsidiary to the last, 
for the reason that a true knowledge of the 
will would mean immense confidence in its 
powers. But, of itself, it is so important that 
it merits to be put down as a special cause. 

Many will-maladies would disappear if only 
we trusted in the will. Its native force is so 
great, its recuperative power is so sure, and 
its resources are so unlimited that it is capable 
of achieving wonderful results. All that is 
needed is a firm confidence in it. It is, as we 
have said, our highest and most perfect fac- 
ulty. It is the best thing we have, and the most 
effective weapon that we wield. / It alone can - - 
develop itself. As we saw, it cannot be trained 
or perfected from without. It alone can cure 
its own maladies. The one essential thing is, 
however, that we should place trust and confi- 
dence in it. 

Considering these three causes of will- 
maladies together, (1) want of exercise, (2) 
want of knowledge, and (3) want of confi- 
dence, it is our object in this volume to put our 

2 ' ' Marriage and the Sex Problem, ' ' p. 177. 
Ill 



STEENGTH OF WILL 



readers in the way of removing them by pro- 
posing a system of will-exercises, by pointing 
out a practical method for studying the will, 
and by endeavouring in various ways to show 
the power and force of the will. 



112 



SECTION IX 
METHODS OF WILL-TEAINING 



SECTION IX 

METHODS OF WILL-TKAINING 

Many authors suggest in a general way exer- 
cises of self-denial and mortification as a meth- 
od of will-training. Professor Forster, for 
example, thus writes: "Let a teacher try, say 
on a school walk, to put a little will-gymnastics 
into practice, by encouraging the boys to re- 
sist thirst, tiredness, etc. He will be aston- 
ished at the interest which such acts of self- 
conquest will arouse. . . . The teacher must 
proceed to what we may describe as the i science 
of self -control'; he must show how will-power 
is built up by a gradual process of practice on 
the smallest things, and how every act of self- 
conquest in one sphere of life makes the battle 
easier in all the other spheres. ... 

' ' Such exercises as the following will be use- 
ful: keeping things tidy, refraining from talk- 
ing, bodily gymnastics, getting up early in the 
morning, fasting, doing disagreeable things, 
carefully speaking the truth, performing 

115 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



drudgery (such as energetically working at a 
new language) with exactitude. Thus a regen- 
eration of will-power becomes possible such as 
can hardly ever be achieved by direct effort in 
the direction of the greatest weakness, because 
here the tradition of failure has already become 
too powerful.' ' 1 

Professor James, M. Payot, M. Eymieu and 
others likewise recommend small acts of self- 
denial as of the greatest importance in build- 
ing up the will. A quotation from Professor 
James may perhaps be given. "Keep the fac- 
ulty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous 
exercise every day. That is, be systematically 
heroic in little unnecessary points; do every 
day or two something for no other reason than 
its difficulty, so that when the hour of dire need 
draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved nor 
untrained to stand the test. Asceticism of this 
sort is like the insurance which a man pays on 
his house and goods. The tax does him no good 
at the time, and possibly may never bring him 
a return. But if the fire does come, his having 
paid it will be his salvation from ruin. So 
with the man who has daily inured himself to 
habits of concentrated attention, energetic voli- 
tion, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He 

1 "Marriage and the Sex Problem,' ' pp. 175-177. 
116 



METHODS OF WILL-TRAINING 

will stand like a tower when everything rocks 
aronnd him, and his softer fellow-mortals are 
winnowed like chaff in the blast.' ' 

We have in onr second section dwelt at length 
on the relation of religion to will-training and 
have shown that "the only will-training which 
the plain man undergoes is the will-training 
which the practice of religion affords." We 
spoke, of course, of systematic will-training. 
Another indirect method of will-training which 
merits attention is that of bodily-development- 
systems. 2 

No doubt bodily exercises are neither planned 
nor executed with a view to improving the con- 
dition of the will, but de facto they do so. 
They are such a perfect form of discipline when 
properly carried out, that they afford an excel- 
lent training ground for the will. And it 
should be remembered that body and soul are 
so closely united that, a priori, one could affirm, 
even though it were not, as it is, confirmed by 

2 Pere Gillet, O.P., in his work on < ' The Education of Char- 
acter," writes, p. 138: "Moreover in the building up of char- 
acter, simple but properly-regulated gymnastics play a promi- 
nent part. Some have described gymnastics as 'the primary 
school of the will.' Gymnastics for the body may serve as 
model for gymnastics for the soul, whose health is subject, with 
due reservation, to the same laws as those controlling the 
body." 

117 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



experience, that such systems as those of Miil- 
ler or Sandow or Clarke would assuredly im- 
prove the will as well as the bodily members. 

It occurs to us here to refer to the lectures 
given in various parts of Ireland and America 
(and also to the book 3 published recently) by 
Eev. William Lockington, S.J., which have ex- 
cited great interest among thinking men. The 
object of Father Lockington is, primarily, 
body-training, but his ulterior object is to im- 
prove one's output of work. If the body is 
more fit, the quality and quantity of the work 
will be better — such is his reasoning, and it is, 
of course, quite sound. To us, however, his 
system suggests something further. 

It would seem that, indirectly, his exercises 
have the effect of training and bracing-up the 
will. The results he achieves are certainly re- 
markable. Not only are debilitated and dys- 
peptic men rendered vigorous and healthy, but 
lethargic and languid characters are smartened 
up and energised. The psychic as well as the 
physical in man is improved by his methods — 
the reason being that the will is toned up. 
This toning-up of the will is due (1) to the 
fact that the exercises demand regular and per- 

* "Bodily Health and Spiritual Vigour." Longmans, Lon- 
don. 

118 



METHODS OF WILL-TRAINING 

severing self-sacrifice; (2) that the will being 
to some extent dependent on the body for its 
functioning, improves with the improved con- 
dition of the body. It works better and more 
evenly when the body is in sound health. 

Father Lockington's system suggests the 
following two conclusions. First, if our output 
of work is relative to our bodily state, it is 
also relative to the condition of our will. Sec- 
ond, if the will is improved by regular exer- 
cises devoted merely to improving the bodily 
condition, it most likely will be all the more 
improved by regular exercises devoted directly 
and primarily to improving the will itself. 

Now, the chief excellence of Father Lock- 
ington's system is its clearness, simplicity, and 
definiteness. "Any fool can do them. ,, Simi- 
larly, exercises designed to train the will should 
be so clear, simple, and definite that "any fool 
may do them. ' ' It will, we trust, be found that 
the exercises which we shall suggest will sat- 
isfy this condition. Father Lockington's exer- 
cises are not in themselves sacred or spiritual, 
but they are spiritualised when pursued for a 
high end. Similarly, the exercises we shall 
suggest will not in themselves be sacred or 
spiritual, but they will be capable of being spir- 
itualised by those who undertake them for no- 

119 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



ble motives. Father Lockington asks for faith 
and confidence in his system, as the subjective 
condition of the exercitant; we, too, shall ask 
for faith and confidence in the system to be ex- 
plained in a later section. 

A type of systematic will-training which 
would, of course, neither appeal to nor be very 
intelligible to the general public is that in force 
in Jesuit noviceships. The first two years of 
the young Jesuit's life are spent in an elabo- 
rately planned system of occupations, exer- 
cises, and disciplines, described by Fr. Bernard 
Vaughan, S. J., as a "tread-mill," which are 
admirably calculated to develop and perfect 
the human will. Scope is given alike for ini- 
tiative and for self-repression. To create and 
to inhibit, to do and to undo, to l ' toe the line ' ' 
and to carry on a spiritual guerilla warfare, 
to put forth effort, but well-regulated and well- 
calculated effort, in fine to mould and to be 
moulded — all this enters into a Jesuit novice's 
life. The whole regime is a method of will- 
training. It is based on the spiritual exercises, 
and inspired by them. It reduces to fact and 
action the Ignatian psychology of memory, un- 
derstanding and will, inter-dependent, mu- 
tually helpful, and synthetised. 

Professor Sedgwick has well said, "it is im- 
120 



METHODS OF WILL-TRAINING 

possible to estimate the ultimate good to be 
derived, in indirect ways, from any bit of men- 
tal cultivation that one manages to give one- 
self.' ' Hence no type of will-training is to be 
despised as useless, even though it fall far 
short of perfection. The discipline of games, 
of school-life, of a military career, or of office- 
work is in turn useful, and may be made ex- 
tremely useful, from our point of view. "In 
no respect," writes Dr. Oppenheim, "can a 
man show a finer quality of will-power than in 
his own private, intimate life. All of you have 
an indefinite number of temptations to be one 
sort of person while seeming to be another. 
. . . Purity of thought, justness and sweetness 
of intention, rectitude in personal relations, 
charity of opinion, forbearance in shortcom- 
ings or seemingly anomalous standards of 
others — these are the intrinsic qualities that 
stand for nobility of character. And the cul- 
tivation of them is the special province of the 
Will." Everyday life can then be made a 
method of will-training, for nothing is outside 
the scope of the will. 

From the point of view of "working with 
Nature" the following method of will-training 
is suggested. 4 "A right method of strength- 

*" Educating to Purity/ ' p. 165. 
121 



STEENGTH OF WILL 



ening one's will is to ask oneself whether one 
has not really a special bent and aptitude 
for some intellectual or material occupation, 
such as music, writing, manual labour, draw- 
ing, gardening, or the service of the neighbour. 
This being ascertained, exert oneself to mas- 
ter that specialty, by performing that work in 
so careful and faithful a manner that perse- 
verance and exactitude may become a habit, 
aye, a passion.' ' The underlying thought is 
helpful, but the suggestion conveyed is too 
general and too vague to be deemed a method, 
strictly so called. 

It is worth while, for a moment, to recall to 
mind the Greek view of education. It would 
seem that their conception of Education was 
in a broad sense "education of the will," or 
ethical. "We think of education, on the 
whole," writes Dr. Bernard Bosanquet, "as an 
intellectual process, as a process of learning a 
number of things, each of which, on separate 
grounds, is necessary to be known. The Greek 
thought of it, on the whole, as a moral process ; 
or rather, he would not have understood you if 
you had asked him which of the two he sup- 
posed it to be. He would have said that the 
best experience, if due time and opportunity 
is given for assimilating it, necessarily enters 

122 



METHODS OFWILL-TEAINING 

into the tissue of the mind, and determines its 
feelings and desires no less than its views and 
ideas." The yonng Greek was certainly not 
crammed. He seems to have had ample time 
to assimilate the limited amount of positive 
matter that was given him. Meanwhile, how- 
ever, his character was being carefully trained. 
He was gradually prepared for the "heroic 
offering" which was implied in the oath taken 
by the Ephebi, the young cadets of Athens of 
17 or 18 years of age. The oath ran, "I will 
not dishonour my sacred arms; I will not de- 
sert my fellow-soldier by whose side I shall be 
set; I will do battle for my religion and my 
country whether aided or unaided. I will leave 
my country not less, but greater and more pow- 
erful than she is when committed to me ; I will 
reverently obey the citizens who shall act as 
judges ; I will obey the ordinances which have 
been established, and which in time to come 
shall be established, by natural will; and who- 
soever would destroy or disobey these ordi- 
nances, I will not suffer him but I will do bat- 
tle for them whether aided or unaided; and I 
will honour the temples where my fathers wor- 
shipped; of these things the gods are my wit- 
nesses." 
By this oath we can see what was expected 
123 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



of the perfect young Athenian, and we can see 
the ideal which was set before education. The 
young Athenian should be a man of will, loyal, 
consistent, and fearless, one who knew his own 
mind, and one who guided his life by a great 
purpose. His splendid physique, won by years 
of patient drill in dance and warlike exercise, 
was the emblem of his well-ordered firm-set 
will. And his reverence for the gods was wed- 
ded to a calm and manly pursuit of a high 
ideal of patriotism. 

It is only necessary to refer to Aristotle's 
treatment of the virtue of temperance to show 
how well the Greeks understood the need of a 
voluntary self-restraint of the appetites of 
man, and how well they realised that the func- 
tion of willing is twofold — to put forth efforts, 
and to control. Whether or not their educa- 
tional methods sufficed to develop fully these 
qualities of the will it is not our duty to discuss. 
In any case they do not seem to have merited, 
as do the men of the present day, the implied 
censure of Professor Forster. "In every di- 
rection,' ' he writes, "we see the value of con- 
sistent training in intellectual culture, in mu- 
sic, in physical development ; in the case of will- 
power alone all is left to chance." 5 

6 " Marriage and the Sex Problem/ ' p. 174. 
124 



METHODS OF WILL-TRAINING 

In an "Introduction to Psychology, ' ' by 
Professors Loveday and Green, when dealing 
with the training of character some suggestions 
are offered which are worthy of attention, 
though they by no means constitute a method of 
will-training. These suggestions are mainly 
threefold. 

(1) Rewards and Punishments 

"Something may be done by direct rewards 
and punishments, if it is remembered that for- 
cible repression of an undesirable tendency is 
useless unless a better is fostered in its 
place. ' ' 6 

(2) Example 

"The young are ingenuously ready to wor- 
ship heroes and take any pains to copy them. ' ' 7 

(3) Sympathetic Encouragement 

"The most effectual of all means is sympa- 
thetic personal encouragement of common in- 
terests and of the actual tendencies to differ- 
ent occupations which in numberless different 
ways take children out of themselves. " 8 

6 p. 249. 7 ibid. 8 ibid. 

125 



STKENGTH OF WILL 



It will be remarked that these are means of 
training character ab extra (i.e., from without). 
As such they cannot but fail. Character must 
be trained from within — "the true object of 
education is not merely to furnish the instru- 
ment but to train the child in using it. 9 No re- 
wards, or example, or encouragement can suc- 
ceed in doing this. The boy or man must do it 
for himself. And hence it is that a practical 
method of will-training must be of such a kind 
that one and the same person conducts the proc- 
ess and undergoes it at the same time. Mile. E. 
Simon 10 has reduced to four headings her 
method for training the will in children. 

(1) Tendencies towards sensuality must he 
thwarted in the child and it must not be al- 
lowed to live too softly and luxuriously. It 
must be hardened by small hardships. 

(2) The child must be taught to observe or- 
der in the externals of its life. l ' To achieve or- 
der one must take pains, and everything that 
forces one to take pains requires the interven- 
tion of, and simultaneously goes to form the 
will. A child who has been accustomed to or- 
der from his earliest years will necessarily de- 

op. cit., p. 25. 

10 Paper read at the ' l International Congress of Moral Educa- 
tion," 1912. 

126 



METHODS OF WILL-TRAINING 

velop later into a man of will; habitual order 
leads inevitably to the contracting of the habit 
of willing." " 

(3) The spirit of sacrifice must he incul- 
cated in the child. Sacrifice demands effort, 
and effort calls for will. u There are certain 
inconveniences and privations which may be 
voluntarily embraced, such as the reduction of 
one's food, one's amusements, one's sleep, etc. 
The more voluntary this kind of sacrifice is, 
the greater its merit. ' ' 12 

(4) Interest, encouragement and good 
example form the fourth means of helping the 
child to live the life of the will. 

n ' ' Pour avoir de 1 'ordre il f ant se gener et tout ee qui gene 
reclame 1 'intervention de la volonte et la forme en meme temps. 
Un enfant qui aura ete habitue a 1 'ordre des ses premieres 
annees, sera necessairement plus tard, un homme de volonte; 
1 'habitude de l'ordre fait contracter infailliblement 1 'habitude 
de vouloir." 

B H 7 a les souff ranees et les privations qui sont de libre 
choix, comme se retrancher quelque chose dans sa nourriture, 
dans ses amusements, dans son sommeil, etc. Ce genre de sac- 
rifice est d'autant plus meritoire qu'il est plus libre de notre 
part. ' ' 



127 



SECTION X 
A NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 



SECTION X 

!& NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 1 

Theke are two fundamental principles on which, 
the system of will-training which we shall pres- 
ently explain depends. The first of these prin- 
ciples is that the will mnst be self-trained; the 
second is that the element of effort must enter 
into the will-training. 

As regards the first principle, the onus of 
training the will rests on oneself. Will-train- 
ing cannot be done from outside and by 
others. It must be done by oneself. The knowl- 
edge of will-psychology, indispensable for the 
efficient carrying out of the exercises, must be 
gained by personal introspection. To read the 
introspections of others is not sufficient. We 
must come to have an intimate, personal knowl- 

*We call our method a "new" method. This will probably 
seem presumptuous on our part, as there is really little in our 
method which was not known before. However, we have ven- 
tured to call it ' l a new method, ' ' as it brings together for the 
first time, and in a way that is somewhat original, old truths 
and old practices and synthetises them freshly and concretely. 

131 



STRENGTHOFWILL 



edge of the vital facts of our own will. Again 
the spirit of seriousness and earnestness which 
must pervade the exercises must come from 
our own reflections on the necessity and impor- 
tance of having a strong will. Finally the plan- 
ning of exercises, the persevering fulfilment of 
the plans conceived and chosen, together with 
the spirit of loyal effort to strengthen the will 
must come from self. All rests in our own 
hands. Success or failure depends on our- 
selves. If we take the matter into our own 
hands we can train our wills. No one else can 
do this. All depends on self — for the will must 
be self-trained. 

The second principle is that the element of 
effort must enter into the exercises. This ef- 
fort need not be great, but, as we shall see, it 
must be well regulated. It is not always an ef- 
fort to achieve, or to accomplish something. 
At times it will be an effort to repress and re- 
strain. It is, needless to say, the price we have 
to pay. It is the cost of will-development. If 
this outlay is not made, and if this price is not 
paid, then the will must remain unperfected. 
The question for us to decide is, whether or not 
the thing to be bought is worth the price. The 
price is paid in daily instalments. An effort 
is called for every day. Not a great effort, or 

132 



A NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 

a long-protracted effort, but some slight effort. 
All depends on the regular payment of the in- 
stalments. 

There are, now, certain characteristics of 
our system of exercises which we must treat 
of in turn, but we shall do so as briefly as pos- 
sible. These exercises will naturally pass 
through three phases. 

A. The first phase will be educative. 

B. The second phase will be curative. 

C. The third phase will be that of strength- 
ening and perfecting. 

A. The firsf phase of the will-exercises 
will be educative, that is, they will be calcu- 
lated to give the exercitant a good opportunity 
of studying the will. These exercises will, if 
introspections are well done, show the exerci- 
tant the nature of his own will, and of its mal- 
adies. He will come to see clearly how far he 
is an impulsive type, how far he is indecisive, 
hesitating, or lethargic. He will have a good 
test of his power of perseverance, and of the 
depth and strength of his resolution to take up 
the work of will-training. The exercitant will 
experience already some of the immediate ef- 
fects of will-training in the feeling of "braced- 

133 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



up-ness," and in the phenomena of " elans de 
volonte." This first phase will also be impor- 
tant inasmuch as it will show the exercitant 
what will-training entails, and there is little 
doubt but that already at this point many will 
be tempted to discontinue the exercises, al- 
though convinced of their need to strengthen 
their wills. 

B. The second phase of the exercises will 
be curative. Having, during the first phase, 
found out the chief weaknesses of our wills, 
we now set ourselves to heal and cure thenv 
Henceforth the exercises will be planned so as 
to counteract the diseased tendencies of the 
will. If the exercitant finds out that he is in- 
tensely impetuous and impulsive, he will invent 
exercises which will afford a daily effort in 
self-restraint or patience. These exercises, if 
introspections are meanwhile well made, will 
increase his knowledge of the nature of his im- 
petuosity. He will gradually come to discover 
its causes and conditions and to remove them 
one by one. It may be more a physical than a 
psychological weakness in him. If so he will 
study how far his external habits conduce to it. 

Similarly if the exercitant discovers that he 
is lethargic, slothful and indolent, he will plan 
exercises which will afford a daily effort in 

134 



A NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 

energetic action. He will for at least five min- 
utes a day stir himself to strenuous activity. 
Meanwhile he will come to understand better 
his characteristic will-malady. 

C. The third phase of the exercises will 
be that of strengthening and perfecting the 
will. We suppose now that the exercitant has 
in turn studied his will-maladies, and has, at 
least to some extent, cured them. He now 
sets himself to build up and bring to perfec- 
tion his own will. He sets about developing 
fully all its resources, and calling them into 
play. He exercises his will in various ways. 
He attains the power of resolving with inten- 
sity and depth, so that he means with all the 
power of his soul his resolutions. He attains 
the power of choosing with care, with delib- 
eration, but with absolute finality. He ban- 
ishes hesitation and indecision utterly from his 
soul. He grows more consistent, more ener- 
getic, more persevering. He aims at becoming 
a man of strong will, capable of immense ef- 
forts, and of heroic endurance. The exercitant 
with such high aims will still understand that 
it is by small daily efforts, carefully gradu- 
ated and perseveringly followed out, that his 
ideal must be attained. 

It is necessary now to consider, one by one, 
135 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



some of the minor characteristics of our sys- 
tem of will-exercises. 



CHARACTEEISTICS OF THE WILL-EXEKCISES 

(1) Systematic Variation 

The exercises must be varied systematically. 
This does not mean that they must be made 
harder or easier, or that they must be directed 
now against this fault and now against that, in 
quick succession. The object of varying the 
exercises is that the tasks may constantly have 
a certain freshness, so that interest may be 
kept awake, and so that they may not become 
merely automatic. A period of ten days seems 
on the whole to be a good length. Each exer- 
cise should last for ten days, the tasks being 
performed each day, without omitting a single 
day. 

(2) Continuity of tasks 

The daily task should last from five to ten 
minutes. They should neither be too long nor 
too short. During those five or ten minutes 
the task should go on continuously and with- 
out interruption. If an interruption occurs 

136 



A NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 

the task should be begun again. If we suppose 
that the task is to drop in, one by one, slowly 
and deliberately, fifty matches into a match 
box, each day for ten days. Now if, when we 
have dropped in twenty matches some one calls 
us and we have to attend to some other busi- 
ness the task should be begun again after the 
interruption, and not merely completed. Simi- 
larly, if, say, on the fifth day, we forget all 
about the task, then the whole set of ten tasks 
should be begun again, and the four that have 
been completed should be cancelled. 

The reason for this is that in the resolution 
taken at the beginning of each set of tasks, the 
condition of continuity is implied — "each day 
for the next ten days, I shall do so and so." 

(3) Simplicity and triviality 

The tasks should be very simple and definite 
and practical. There should not be the slight- 
est doubt as to what is meant by the resolu- 
tion taken. No difficult or obscure conditions 
should be imposed. Only small, common ob- 
jects, bits of paper, chairs, books, pencils, coins, 
boxes, and such like things should be used. 
Again, the tasks should be trivial This may 
seem strange, but it is an important condition. 

137 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



The one and only object of the task is to train 
the will There should be no ulterior, inter- 
ested object in the task, for if so, the primary 
object of will-training will be lost sight of. 

Let us suppose for instance that we set our- 
selves as a daily task to shave very carefully. 
This in itself is useful and advantageous. 
Very soon we should find that we were forget- 
ting all about will-training and performing the 
task simply for its practical advantage. 

The one and only object of the task should 
be to exercise the will for the sake of the will. 
People will naturally suggest, as a good type 
of task, to spend five minutes every morning 
at Sandow's or Miiller's exercises of body- 
training. This, they will say, is a good will- 
exercise. No doubt such exercises indirectly 
benefit the will, but the object of our exercises 
is to benefit the will in the most direct way 
possible. Hence it would be utterly inconsist- 
ent with the principles of our method to adopt 
such exercises and for such motives. We do 
not want to kill two birds with the one stone. 
"We only want to kill one bird with one stone, 
to exercise the will in some way or other for 
the sake of the will. What we want is to build 
up will by willing and not by body-development. 
For this reason our tasks should have no ul- 

138 



A NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 

terior practical object. They should be triv- 
ial and useless for all other purposes except 
for our one sole purpose of will-training. This 
point is of so much importance that it is well 
to insist upon it. The element of practical ad- 
vantage in a task would ruin it from the point 
of view of will-development. On this point we 
tried experiments, that is by choosing tasks 
which were in themselves useful. We always 
found that, as a result, as far as we could 
judge, the task was a failure from the point 
of view of will-training. 

(4) Graduated Effort 

The tasks should, as we have seen, be varied, 
and should be directed towards certain definite 
ends. They should also be very carefully grad- 
uated. 

It is well, once and for all, to point out that 
the tasks need not be hard. In fact, if they 
were hard the whole system would be a failure. 
First of all, exercitants would experience dis- 
gust, and would soon find an excuse for aban- 
doning them. Secondly, if they were hard it 
would be extremely difficult to pay sufficient 
attention to introspection which is an impor- 
tant element of them. The tasks should, then, 

139 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



be easy, that is, they should only require a 
slight effort. They should continue to be easy, 
while at the same time becoming just slightly 
more difficult. The graduation should be ex- 
tremely slight, almost negligible. Indeed, the 
very fact of the daily discipline of performing 
a five or ten minutes ' task, and of strengthen- 
ing one's resolution to carry it out faithfully 
already requires no inconsiderable effort. 

And the fact that some days we are more fa- 
tigued, more hurried, or less "keen" about 
will-training will in itself introduce an element 
of variation. Nature will secure in her own 
way many variations. For both mind and body 
are in themselves subject to many variations. 
These variations will in turn react in the ease 
or difficulty with which we face the tasks. 

One obvious disadvantage of interspersing 
hard tasks with easy tasks is this: The will, 
like the body, is capable of being worked up to 
a high pitch of training. If a hard task was 
carried out for ten or twenty days the will 
would be "enormously worked up." If then 
very easy tasks succeeded the effect on the 
will would be injurious and debilitating. It 
would be too sudden a "cooling." 2 The will 

'Those who have made "retreats' ' — spiritual exercises — 
for four or eight days know very well what this means. Dur- 

140 



A NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 

should if necessary be worked up, and after- 
wards reduced to normal conditions, by care- 
fully graduated tasks. But there should be a 
special reason for doing this. 

Tasks should be simple, definite, and easy, 
while being as little monotonous as possible, the 
whole object being not to punish nor mortify 
nor weary but to encourage the exercitant to 
exercise his will, daily and methodically, ac- 
cording to common-sense principles. 

(5) Persevering Effort 

Needless to say, much time is required in 
order to bring the will to its full perfection. 
It is not a matter of days or months, but of 
years. To cure the will fully of all its faults 
and maladies is the work of a life-time. This, 
however, does not mean that no immediate 
good is to be looked for. On the contrary, the 
good effects of will-exercises will very soon be 
felt, and an increase of will-power and energy 
will be experienced before many exercises are 
completed. 

ing "retreats" the will is worked up to a high state of per- 
fection. This of course is in itself excellent, but at the same 
time it introduces an element of danger. For if we quit the 
" retreat " and return at once to a careless or lax spiritual 
life, we shall not only undo the good of the "retreat," but 
shall probably fall to a lower spiritual level than before. 

141 



STKENGTH OF WILL 



There is one consolation, too, in the carrying 
out of these tasks. Not a jot or tittle of the 
effort expended will be lost or wasted. All is 
deposited in a very safe bank. What Professor 
Sedgwick has said of mind-culture is equally 
true of will-culture: "It is impossible to esti- 
mate the ultimate good to be derived in indi- 
rect ways from any bit of mental cultivation 
that one manages to give oneself." Not only 
is nothing lost, but a profit which bears an 
analogy to compound interest, is derived. The 
will is not only laying by a supply of will- 
power, but by its very exercises it is increas- 
ing its own efficiency in winning will-power. 
The progression is geometrical. It adds to it- 
self its own newly-acquired ivill-poiver, and 
thus strengthened, it gains more and more. 

Time, however, as we have said, is needed in 
order that the will may be fully trained, and 
thus much perseverance is called for. To un- 
derstand the need for perseverance it is nec- 
essary to consider that in will-training there is 
always a "general" and a "particular" reso- 
lution. 

The "general" resolution, which is implicit, 
is the resolution to take up the work of will- 
training, and to persevere faithfully in it. 
The "particular" resolution is that which de- 

142 



A NEW METHOD EXPLAINED 

termines on the precise task for these ten days 
in which we find ourselves. 

Now the perseverance brought into play by 
the "general," or major, resolution is, of itself, 
of inestimable value in the training of the 
will. It calls for no small sum of will- 
power. And it was because of it that we said 
that will-power is required in will-training — 
that we need will, in order to train the will. 
Having thus far considered the characteristics 
of our method of will-training, we shall in our 
next section give some concrete examples of 
will-tasks, and of the technique connected 
therewith. 



143 



SECTION XI 

THE TECHNIQUE OF THE NEW 
METHOD 



SECTION XI 

THE TECHNIQUE OF THE NEW METHOD 

The technique of the exercises may now be de- 
scribed. It is extremely simple, and there is 
no glamour of mystery about it. The essen- 
tials for each experiment are: a quiet room 
where they may be carried on without inter- 
ruption; a watch to keep the time of duration 
and the hour at which the experiment takes 
place; and a note-book wherein to enter the 
Introspections. The articles used in the tasks 
should be of the simplest kind and such as 
every one has at hand. 

To begin the experiments, the date and hour 
are written into the note-book, together with 
the resolution, which is at the same time for- 
mally made. Then the task is duly carried 
out, and the exercitant writes into the note- 
book his introspection. 

As these directions may be hard to under- 
stand without a concrete example, we propose 

to give in full one or two exercises of a sub- 

147 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



ject who actually made them. The first exer- 
cise we shall give (which was for seven days, 
not for ten) naturally belongs to the educative 
phase, as it was the very first exercise of this 
subject. It was as follows : 



EXEECISE I 

Resolution, August 11, 1913. 

"Each day, for the next seven days, I 
will stand on a chair, here in my room, 
for ten consecutive minutes, and I will 
try to do so contentedly." 

I. August 11 (From 10 to 10:10 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

" Exercise a little strange and unnatural. 
Had to smile, or cross my arms and stand 
akimbo in order to feel contented. Time 
went quickly and pleasantly. Found it hard 
to keep ' willing contentment' and doing noth- 
ing. Of course, I had distracting thoughts, 
e. g., 'What would this experiment lead 
to? Would any one come in?' The ticking 
of my watch was annoying. I felt very free 
doing my own sweet will. ' ' 
148 



TECHNIQUE OF THE NEW METHOD 

II. August 12 (From 11 :11 to 11 :21 a. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task passed easily and not unpleasantly. 
Had feeling of contentment and even of a 
kind of pride or manfulness in fulfilling my 
will. I felt, too, braced up, not merely in my 
mind, but also physically by the mere ex- 
ercise of willing and fulfilling my resolution. 
At one moment I feared interruption (hear- 
ing a step outside my room) but was very 
glad when it passed by. Had distractions 
and felt a little unnatural." 

IK. August 13 (From 10:22 to 10:32 a. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task passed quickly and not unpleasantly, 
although there is a certain strain in main- 
taining contentment of mind. I experienced 
a feeling of power and resourcefulness in 
fulfilling this self-imposed task. Joy and 
strength are felt in willing and fulfilling 
one's will. The exercise certainly tones me 
up morally and awakens a sense of nobility 
and manfulness. I maintain an attitude, not 
of submission to the resolution, and of res- 
149 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



ignation, but rather of actively willing to be 
doing what I am doing, and it is this which 
gives satisfaction. I find, too, in my mind a 
consolation from the thought that the exer- 
cise is legitimate and profitable. " 

IV. August 14 (From 9 :59% to 10 :09% a. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task passed quietly;, a little tedious and 
tiring. Mental satisfaction felt in fulfilling 
resolution. I experienced again that feel- 
ing of resourcefulness or manfulness in car- 
rying out my will — but think that to some 
extent I am bracing myself up in addition 
to willing contentment. The exercise cer- 
tainly tones me up and awakens a pro- 
nounced sense of strength and virility. 

"It struck me (as a distraction) how im- 
portant it is for us to be aware of our own 
will-force and will-power, in such matters as 
keeping resolutions. It increases self-confi- 
dence, self-reliance, and helps us to face the 
work of winning self-control more bravely.' ' 

V. August 15 (From 9:55% to 10:05% a. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task passed quietly and evenly. Feeling 
of satisfaction in fulfilling resolution. I felt 
150 



TECHNIQUE OF THE NEW METHOD 

it possible to intensify my will-effort (elan 
de volonte) by embracing and identifying 
myself with the resolution more and more. 
I experienced again but more obscurely that 
feeling of manfulness and strength in will- 
ing my will. My interest waned a little 
towards the latter half of the task." 

VI. August 16 (From 10 :07 to 10 :17 a. m.) 



Introspection. 

"Task passed quietly and easily. Not much 
strain. ' Willing contentment' comes perhaps 
more easily and more quietly. Somewhat dis- 
tressed at times and feel less braced up. The 
task is becoming habitual. Evidently it will 
be necessary to change the task often, in or- 
der to secure the bracing-up feeling. I tried 
to intensify my will-effort in performing the 
task but do not know if I succeeded. I expe- 
rienced a certain sense of being in harmony 
with a law (i. e., my resolution).'' 

VII. August 17 (From 10 :12 to 10 :22 a. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task passed quietly and fairly quickly. 
Some distractions and less ' exciting.' I felt 
151 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



satisfaction, not so much sensible as mental, 
in fulfilling my resolution. Also I experi- 
enced a modest sense of strength and power 
in having been as good as my word. The 
feeling of being i braced up' was much less 
marked — the effort at i contentment' came 
much easier. There was no feeling of ennui 
or monotony." 

At the end of each exercise it is well to ap- 
pend remarks about the exercises as a whole, 
such as the following: 



Notes on Exercise I 

(l) 1 A good exercise, simple and easy, but 
perhaps slightly too long. 

(2) I fulfilled it without disgust, hesitation, 
or difficulty. 

(3) I think it tended to tone up my will — 
especially during the first three or four days. 

(4) I think it helps me to understand and 
realise that I have the power to carry out reso- 
lutions faithfully. 

(5) I think it adds, slightly at least, to my 
sense of self-confidence. 



152 



TECHNIQUE OF THE NEW METHOD 

Before recording another exercise of this 
subject it may be well to make a few observa- 
tions at this point. 

The tasks prove to be extremely interesting 
to the exercitants when they acquire a certain 
facility in introspecting. They delight to 
watch and record the various movements and 
impulses of the mind and will. This work of 
analysis and observation is, of course, itself 
an excellent discipline. Nothing stimulates the 
mind so much as the observation of its own 
wonderful, complex, subtle activities. The psy- 
chological sense, like the poetic sense, affords 
unending delight to the happy possessor. The 
poet finds his pleasure and happiness in study- 
ing the external works of nature, and in inter- 
preting her moods and her strange achieve- 
ments. The psychologist finds nature in his 
own mind, and there he feasts on beauties as 
rich and varied as those of the Alps, Yellow- 
stone Park or Killarney. 

The exercise which we have recorded was one 
of purely educative interest. The subject was 
simply finding out for himself some will-phe- 
nomena, and preparing to be able to discover 
his own will-maladies. In the exercise which 
we shall now record, the subject is in the be- 
ginning of the curative stage. He has found 

153 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



out that the chief fault of his will is some form 
of impetuosity, and he is now undertaking an 
exercise in which a certain self-control is called 
for. Meanwhile he is studying the various 
symptoms of his malady. The task reveals to 
him the restlessness and feverishness of his 
will, and he feels it a veritable torture to curb 
his impetuousness. 

As the experiments proceed, a certain im- 
provement and increase of control may be no- 
ticed, and the task becomes a little less hard. 

The exercise lasted from November 13, 1913, 
till November 22, inclusive, and usually oc- 
cupied ten minutes. The material consisted of 
(1) a hundred small bits of card-board, each 
about the size of a dime; (2) a small tin box 
about three inches high, in which the bits of 
card-board were dropped, one by one; and (3) 
a table on which the bits of card-board were 
deposited in a heap beside the box. 



EXERCISE XI 

Resolution, November 13, 1913. 

"Each day for the next ten days I shall 
calmly and deliberately, without haste, 
154 



TECHNIQUE OF THE NEW METHOD 

replace in the box {one by one) the hun- 
dred bits of card-board." 



I. November 13 (From 10:55 to 11:07 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task tiresome, long, and difficult. It seems 
to me impossible to act calmly and without 
haste — even when moving slowly. My ac- 
tions are jerky and impetuous. There is an . 
uneasy tension in my movements. I can't do ] 
a thing in a frigid, calm way. The will is 
strained, quietly and tediously, by this task. 
It is bracing in another kind of way. The 
will achieves new powers. For me the power 
of patient action is non-existent. This exer- 
cise gives me an insight into the short-com- 
ings of my own will. I see clearly my im- 
petuosity and impulsiveness — a heated ex- 
citability in my will and temperament. ' ' 

II. November 14 (From 9 :04 to 9 :15 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task very hard; the hardest and most wor- 
rying and disagreeable yet. Here the will 
finds not only the what but also the how. 
Everything strives against this slow, waste- 
155 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



ful, wearisome dropping in, one by one, of 
the pieces of paper. Why not do them fast? 
Hurry up! It is against my whole nature 
to go slowly; forehead, fingers, chest and 
eyes, all strain for quicker action. Every 
little uncontrolled movement degenerates 
into a jerk and a rush. It is so hard to go 
slowly and deliberately. I feel worried, an- 
gry, unhappy, uncomfortable. It is distress- 
ing. Still the victory is won and I am some- 
what braced up. But it is not a gracious vic- 
tory. I took it in bad part." 

III. November 15 (From 9 :20 to 9 :32 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task very hard; a constant strain. Even 
when going slowly my will * wants me to go 
as fast as ever I can while going slowly.' 
I am tempted to think it is impossible con- 
stitutionally for an impulsive character to 
act slowly and deliberately. Certainly I feel 
it utterly against the grain. Each piece of 
paper was the occasion of a fresh struggle. 
The task is tiring. I feel mentally and mor- 
ally braced up. The after-effects of this task 
are considerable. Introspection is a little 
difficult. It is a severe test of will-patience. 
156 



TECHNIQUEOFTHENEW METHOD 

I experienced a feeling of tension in the fore- 
head — a hot, worried feeling.' ' 



IV. November 16 (From 9 :45% to 9 :56y 2 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task quiet, monotonous. At times I was 
very distracted. I put in the bits of paper 
in a semi-mechanical way. I find that when 
I forget what I am about and grow careless 
the opposition from impulsiveness and im- 
petuosity disappears. The will calls up op- 
position to itself. The will-act, or elan, to- 
night, was very weak and the opposition al- 
most nil. I was tired and sleepy. The exer- 
cise did not seem so hard as before for the 
reason that I felt indifferent to it. I didn't 
care much. I would not have dreamed, how- 
ever, of omitting the task or of changing it 
into something easier." 

V. November 17 (From 9 :09% to 9 :19y 2 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task very unpleasant, distasteful, weari- 
some, and distressing. I dislike this task 
very much. It depresses me, too. It is pain- 
ful, perhaps because it goes against my nat- 
157 



STRENGTH OFWILL 



ural tendency to impetuosity. I find no 
pleasure in dropping in slowly, one by one, 
the pieces of paper. I have to watch myself 
lest I jerk and do it hastily. I experienced 
a tired headachy feeling. I find it hard to 
breathe evenly and was distracted. For a 
moment I cheered myself up, saying, 'I shall 
do it contentedly,' but this feeling of con- 
tentment soon disappeared. I feel all the 
same braced up mentally, not physically. It 
is a will-exercise. The characteristic will- 
feeling was not much in evidence. Intro- 
spection was a little hard." 

VI. November 18 (From 9 :00y 2 to 9 :liy 2 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

1 i Task was quiet, slow, monotonous and very 
hard. I watched my hand working slowly 
and said, 'Look how strong my will is and 
how much my hand is subject to my will.' 
This point of view aroused my will; it felt 
more active; braced up; and controlled the 
working of my hand more deliberately and 
easily afterwards. Will-feeling was obscure- 
ly present. The task was headachy and a lit- 
tle depressing. Distractions but no tempta- 
tions to abandon the task. I felt at times 
158 



T B C H N I Q U E O F T II E N E W M B T II D 

that it was veritably 'will-training.' It is 
a good exercise for the will. A steady re- 
solve to fulfil the task fills my mind. ' ' 

VII. November 19 (From 9:13y 2 to 9:23 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task passed quietly. Less unpleasant. I 
was conscious as I watched my hand slowly 
and obediently working, (1) of the power of 
the will, (2) of a certain deep sense of power 
and strength. I put in the pieces calmly, 
slowly, and deliberately. The will controlled 
the action better while I watched my hand 
working. Braced up by the task. Will-feel- 
ing present, but not very openly. Task was 
less disagreeable, but it is still long and 
hard. I find myself saying, 'Next task will 
be shorter.' My will faces the definite (de- 
finitive) task before it and concentrates on 
that. Therein lies its strength." 



VIII. November 20 (From 5 :15 to 5 :25y 2 p. m.) 

Introspection. 

"Task slow and uninteresting. Felt all the 
same that I was not going slow enough ; that 
I was not fully overcoming my will. I often, 
159 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



in such things, feel that somehow my will is 
managing to escape me, and I am not quite 
6 smashing' at it, but missing my aim a little. 
Feel anxious to have the task finished. At 
times I felt braced up and proud to be exer- 
cising my will. As I looked down at my 
hand, slowly and obediently working, I was 
struck by the power of will, by its supremacy. 
The ultimate idea of will-training has been 
less in my mind the last few days, and the 
task has been less pleasant and good-hu- 
moured." 

IX. November 21 (From 4 :56 to 5 :07% p. m.) 

Introspection. 
"Task passed quietly; distracted, or rather 
uninterested. I feel that the ' will-bent,' or 
6 determination' given in the beginning of the 
task pervades it to the end, and secures its 
■ fulfilment. I felt the seriousness and signifi- 
cance of the task. Braced up somewhat; 
will-feeling was appreciably present. A good 
task, but it becomes somewhat mechanical 
and the strain lessens. A sense of the power 
of the will was present. The more definite 
the resolution, the more easily the will seems 
to work. The 'end' or ' resolution' seems to 
160 



TECHNIQUE OF THE NEW METHOD 

have a certain compelling force on the will. 
It keeps the will up to the mark. The 'will' 
and the 'end' act and react on each other." 



X. November 22 (From 6 :22 to 6 :33 p. m.) 

Introspection. 
1 ' Task was qniet ; much more interesting and 
instructive. Will-feeling was present. Will 
was toned up; braced up. I observed (1) 
that I had been going too slow before, and 
that was not in the resolution. (2) The will 
should insist on the action running along the 
lines of (or between the walls of) the reso- 
lution. (3) Willing should be closely con- 
nected with mind — it should be the faithful 
and precise fulfilling of the resolution — not 
more nor less. (4) It is as much impetuos- 
ity to go (e. g., in this task) too slow as too 
fast, for the essence of impetuosity is to give 
way to or be driven before motives. And to 
go too slow, in this task, as well as to go 
too fast, is to be driven before motives. (5) 
Self-control and self-command means that 
the will drives the human machine exactly 
and precisely along predetermined lines. 
Will is to control activity duly; well-regu- 
lated effort is its proper outcome." 
161 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



As regards introspections, such as those 
which we have given as examples, it must be 
remembered that they are always open to the 
charge of subjectivity and auto-suggestion. 
Indeed, it may readily be admitted that all in- 
trospection is to some extent coloured by fancy, 
and subjective. It is impossible to be perfectly 
objective when introspecting. It is impossible 
to be exact and complete in describing internal 
phenomena. 

Still, though introspection is a faulty meth- 
od of observation, it is by no means worthless. 
It is the method given us by nature. It is the 
only method we have of finding out what goes 
on within us. And it can, if used with caution, 
be wonderfully efficient. In fine, it is a method 
that we cannot dispense with, and that we can- 
not disregard, but that, at the same time, we 
cannot wholly trust. 

For our purpose, however, it is perfectly sat- 
isfactory and sufficiently accurate. For it af- 
fords us a good practical knowledge of the phe- 
nomena of the will, of its impulses, activities, 
and weaknesses. 



162 



section xn 

A TENTATIVE SCHEME OF EXERCISES 



section xn 

A TENTATIVE SCHEME OF EXERCISES 

In the two foregoing sections we have given ex- 
amples of the exercises which we recommend 
with a view to will-training, and we have de- 
scribed at length the method and characteristics 
of these exercises. 

If followed out they are calculated not only 
to keep the will healthy and energetic, but to 
develop its resources and cure its defects. By 
willing, the will grows stronger. By willing, 
the will comes to build up will-power. Above 
all, by willing will, the will builds up the will. 
This must be the primary characteristic of the 
will-task, that in it the will is willing will. 

Another important characteristic of these 
will-tasks is that in them the will focuses its 
strength on some small, definite object to be 
achieved. It learns "to get a thing done," "to 
carry out" something. It learns to act, and to 
achieve. The feeling of being able to accom- 
plish something that lies before us, however 

165 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



trivial it may be, awakens in us a new confi- 
dence and sense of power. "At least," we say 
to ourselves, having faithfully performed a few 
exercises, "there are some things I can do, 
there are some resolutions I can keep." Our 
sense of strength grows. "We face new tasks 
and difficulties in a bolder, braver spirit. We 
find ourselves "braced up," and we presently 
discover that the will is really able to carry 
us over big obstacles. Above all, we shall not 
be tempted to give way to despair, and say 
with so many men, young and old, "I have no 
longer any will. I simply can't help it." 

As regards the details of the method we sug- 
gest, everything must be regarded as purely 
tentative. Our method is capable of being ap- 
plied in various ways to suit various situa- 
tions. We do not wish it to be considered rigid. 
It should be modified and changed to suit cir- 
cumstances. As regards the length of time, 
the nature of the tasks, the writing out of all 
or only of some introspections, the performing 
the tasks every day, or only three times a week 
— all such details must be arranged by the ex- 
ercitant himself. We only wish to suggest 
an outline, in a purely tentative way, of a 
method of will-training on what we consider 
common-sense lines. 

166 



A SCHEME OF EXERCISES 

As it may be helpful to some to suggest a 
few exercises to start with, we shall do so — 
although it would be more in accordance with 
our wishes to leave the determining of the par- 
ticular tasks entirely to the exercitant him- 
self. However, for convenience' sake, we shall 
suggest a few. 

I. PKELIMINARY EXEKCISES 

These exercises are suitable for what we 
have called the Educative Phase. 

I. To stand on a chair for five minutes 
with arms crossed. 1 
II. To repeat quietly and aloud, "I will do 
this/' keeping time with rhythmic 
movements of a stick or ruler for five 
minutes. 

III. To hold hands upstretched vertically 

for five minutes. 

IV. To walk to and fro in room, touching 

in turn say a clock on the mantelpiece 
and a particular pane of glass for five 
minutes. 

1 Eaeh task should be performed each day for ten consecu- 
tive days. Then another task should be begun. The will should 
be exercised during the five minutes in earnest will-acts, so 
that the task should be done willfully and contentedly. 

167 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



V. To keep eyes steadily fixed on a small 

object for five minutes. 
VI. To keep one hand in a basin of cold 

water for five minutes. 
VII. To count and recount aloud some dozen 

small objects for five minutes. 
VIII. To listen to the ticking of a clock or 
watch, making some definite move- 
ment at every fifth tick. 
IX. To get up on and get down from a chair 

thirty times. 
X. To read aloud, forwards and backwards, 
a paragraph from a book for five 
minutes. 

It may be well here to make a few remarks. 
These tasks are merely suggestive of the type 
to be employed. They are designedly trivial 
and a little strange. If the element of strange- 
ness did not enter in, it would be hard to keep 
interest and attention awake. It is supposed, 
of course, that the will will be occupied during 
each task in a steady resolve to fulfil the con- 
ditions fully. Indeed, the tasks as given above 
only represent the external part of the exercise. 
The internal part and the most important part, 
is the activity of the will in willing resolutely 
and contentedly. The triviality of the tasks al- 

168 



A SCHEME OF EXERCISES 

lows of their being indefinitely varied. Num- 
berless tasks of such a kind can easily be im- 
agined. At times old tasks may with profit 
be repeated. Then the old and new introspec- 
tions should be compared. 

The tasks given above are all positive. They 
consist in accomplishing something during a 
certain fixed time. But another kind of task — 
negative tasks — will at once suggest them- 
selves. They will consist in avoiding something 
during a longer or indefinite time. For in- 
stance, I might resolve during the next ten days 
never to use a pencil, or never to enter a certain 
room, or never to step on a particular door- 
mat. These negative tasks will also be of great 
utility. 

To one point, in particular, attention must 
be drawn. It is all-important to get the will to 
will with more and more intensity. The ex- 
ercitant should see to this above all. He should 
try to gauge the strength of his will-acts and 
should try to render them more and more deep 
and earnest. In this way he will acquire the 
power of making stronger and stronger reso- 
lutions. 



169 



STKENGTHOFWILL 



II. THE CUKATIVE PHASE 

When the exercitant considers that he has a 
sufficiently accurate knowledge of his will and 
of its weaknesses he will begin to invent exer- 
cises calculated to benefit his will. A few ex- 
amples may be given — merely tentatively — as 
suitable for " impetuous' ' wills. 

Exercises for an "Impetuous" Will 

I. To replace in a box, very slowly and 
deliberately, one hundred matches or 
bits of paper. 
II. To write out, very slowly and carefully, 
fifty times the words, "I will train my 
will." 

III. To turn over, slowly and quietly, all the 

leaves of a book (about 200 pages). 

IV. To stand for fi.ve minutes in as complete 

a condition of listlessness and leth- 
argy as possible. 
V. To swing the arms over the head very 
slowly and deliberately for five min- 
utes. 
VI. To watch the movement of the second- 
hand of a clock or watch, and to pro- 
170 



A SCHEME OF EXERCISES 

nounce some word slowly at the com- 
pletion of each minute. 
VII. To draw on a piece of paper, very slow- 
ly and painstakingly, parallel lines 
for five minutes. 
VIII. To count aloud, slowly, up to two hun- 
dred. 
IX. To put on and take off a pair of gloves 
(or brush a hat) very slowly and de- 
liberately for five minutes. 
X. To move a chair from one side of the 
room to the other, very slowly for five 
minutes. 
N. B. These exercises can be readily be adapt- 
ed to suit a "lethargic" type of will. 

The tasks should be most exactly carried out. 
They should neither be longer nor shorter, nor 
harder nor easier, nor swifter nor slower, than 
the stipulated amount. The predetermined 
bounds should be most faithfully observed, and 
during the period of the tasks no change what- 
soever should be made. Some exercises of a 
more difficult kind may at times be tried. Those 
we have spoken of deal with external move- 
ments and acts, but it is possible to have good 
exercises dealing with what is psychical and 
internal. For instance, if we place a watch 

171 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



well within ear-shot, so that we can hear it tick- 
ing most distinctly. Then, for five minutes, try 
by energetically distracting the attention (with- 
out of course making noise or moving exter- 
nally) to no longer hear the ticking of the 
watch. This is a most interesting exercise, 
though very difficult and distressing, 1 

Exercises such as we have suggested afford 
an excellent system of self -discipline. Ascetics, 
as we know, inflict severe pain on their bodies 
by various means ; and harshly refuse the dear- 
est yearnings of their hearts. They go against 
their own will in a hundred different ways in 
order to have complete control of themselves. 
Such mortification is so admirable and so es- 
sential that in every age the Church has taught 
and practised it. It is the "Deny yourself " of 
the Gospel. It is the "hard word" to which we 
must all listen. 

Now, self-discipline, to be really effective, 
must be systematic, moderate, and well-con- 
ceived. It can adopt a thousand different 
forms. The form, indeed, matters little. The 
essence is that it should cost not too much, nor 

1 This exercise in deliberate distraction of attention is worthy 
of special study in view of the question which arises with re- 
gard to sensuality (Vide, Section XIV), as to how far the 
will can control attention and draw it away from something 
which holds it strongly. 

172 



A SCHEME OF EXERCISES 

too little — but that it should cost just so much 
as, given various circumstances relative to the 
person, will be helpful to that person's will. 
For the grand object of self-discipline is, in 
reality, to brace up the human will for the 
struggle of the moral life. 

Now, the exercises which we suggest are, of 
course, designed to brace up the human will. 
They are systematic and moderate and should 
be conceived so as to suit well all relative cir- 
cumstances. They are not designed to cause 
physical pain, although they entail effort and 
expenditure of physical strength. They are 
planned to cost the will some effort. They cost, 
not too much nor too little, but just enough, 
given the circumstances of the case. 

To strengthen the will, and to render it en- 
ergetic, ready, persevering and consistent, 
some system of exercises is obviously neces- 
sary. The education of the will must not be 
left to chance. Nor, indeed, can it be left to 
others. As we have already seen, it must be 
carried out by ourselves. It must be carried 
out, too, in accordance with the knowledge we 
can ourselves acquire of our own wills. Self- 
study and self -discipline must then go hand-in- 
hand. Time, effort, and patience is the price 
to be paid. The system to be followed is sim- 

173 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



pie, practical and clear. There is no mystery 
and there is no short-cnt. The goal to reach 
is self-mastery, personal power and energy of 
character. The way is long, bnt the goal is 
worth winning. 2 

3 As regards the third phase, that of Strengthening and Per- 
fecting the Will, we leave the planning of exercises entirely to 
the exercitant himself. The exercises will naturally be some- 
what harder and more trying than those hitherto spoken of. 



174 



SECTION XIII 
THE WILL AND HABIT 



section xni 

THE WILL AND HABIT 

It is necessary, at this point, having explained 
our proposed method of will-training, to dis- 
cuss the question of habit, for in habit the will, 
on the one hand, finds its chief obstacle, and 
on the other hand its chief auxiliary. To over- 
come habits which are injurious to character 
is the first important work of the will, and to 
form habits calculated to secure and perpetuate 
its victories is the second important work of 
the will. 

In general, we may say that our lives are one 
vast mass of habits. Almost all we do is done 
according to habits formed at different times. 
We get up, dress, eat, talk, walk, and work by 
habit. The formation of these habits is the 
characteristic work of the will. Many of them, 
good or bad, are swiftly made. Oftentimes, one 
or two repetitions of the same act suffice to 
form a habit. The oftener these acts are re- 

177 



STEENGTH OF WILL 



peated, the stronger grows the habit, and the 
more deeply it is embedded in our nature. The 
older and stronger a habit is, the harder it is 
to give it up or break through it, in other words 
the more difficult it is to form an antagonistic 
habit. For the only way to lay aside one habit 
is by replacing it by another. "All our life," 
writes Professor James, "so far as it has defi- 
nite form, is but a mass of habits — practical, 
emotional, and intellectual — systematically or- 
ganised for our weal or woe, and bearing us ir- 
resistibly toward our destiny, whatever the 
latter may be. ' ' 1 

It is in the dual principle of man that is found 
the reason why to such an extent we are crea- 
tures of habit, "imitators and copiers of our 
past selves." We are formed of matter and 
spirit, of body and soul, capable of bearing 
physical impressions in our bodies, and as 
liable to be "bent" or "curved" as the twig of 
a tree or the leaf of a book. For just as the 
twisting of a piece of wire gives it a physical 
tendency to take up a certain shape, so the 
straining of our muscles or the curving of our 
lips to form a peculiar smile, or the furrowing 
of our brows in a certain way, secures that 
these parts are shaped just as the piece of wire 

"'Talks to Teachers/' p. 64. 
178 



THE WILL AND HABIT 



is shaped. Again, although intellect and will 
are spiritual functions, still they also are im- 
mersed in matter, and to every movement of 
theirs, corresponds a movement in the brain, 
that is, in their material correlative. And so 
it is that habits of thought and habits of will- 
ing can be formed, at least in this sense, that 
physical impressions are traced somehow and 
somewhere in the brain which correspond to 
these acts of intellect and will. In the will, in 
particular, in choice-acts which have become 
habitual, a certain kind of "structure" seems 
to persist in such a way that motives take a 
habitual course according to it, or according 
to the nature of the motivation tracks. 2 Will 
and intellect can thus form habits, and in ad- 
dition, as Dr. Carpenter writes, "our nervous 
systems have grown to the way in which they 
have been exercised, just as a sheet of paper 
or a coat, once creased or folded, tends to fall 
for ever afterwards into the same identical 
fold." 

As we go on in life, we grow more and more 
like automatic machines. Our habits increase 
in number and strength. Saint and sinner 
alike do a hundred things, unconsciously, in 

3 Vide, ' ' Motive Force and Motivation Tracks, ' ' Longmans, 
1911. 

179 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



the same characteristic old way. Of both types 
of men we often speak thus: "It's just like 
him. I knew he'd do that." Everything we 
do tends to fall under some habit or other, 
good or bad. This does not mean that we are 
any the less responsible for our acts, or any 
the less free. For we are responsible for form- 
ing our habits, and even when we act according 
to habits, there is nothing to show that we are 
not acting freely. An automatic act does not 
mean a non-free act. It means an act that 
takes place with maximal ease, evenness, and 
economy of volitional effort, owing to similar 
acts having often been done before. But it 
neither prescinds from the attention of the 
mind nor consent of the will. In fine, it never 
has been shown and never can be shown that 
what is called, in the broad sense, an automatic 
act, passes unknown to the mind and unap- 
proved by the will. 3 

s Vide, "Motive Force and Motivation Tracks," p. 142. 

"We understand Automatism in a wide sense, as being the 
state arrived at by the Will, when it functions, evenly, swiftly, 
and regularly, and in a manner, more or less independent of 
conscious attention. We do not imply that consciousness is 
altogether absent in automatic actions. It seems to us that 
facts show that there is usually present some trace of con- 
sciousness. We quite agree with Mr. Stout ('Manual of Psy- 
chology, ' p. 109) that, in automatic actions, 'the diversity of 
attention is probably never absolutely complete. The musician, 

180 



THE WILL AND HABIT 



We find ourselves, then, as time goes on, with 
certain inseparable companions — our habits. If 
they are good habits — cheerfulness, industry, 
honesty, and temperance — it is well for us. Our 
lives will be lives of peace and goodness. But 
if, on the other hand, we allow ourselves to 
contract bad habits our lot is bound to be 
wretched. 

It is with the object of helping others to form 
good habits that Professor James formulated 
certain practical rules, to some of which we 
shall forthwith refer. 

First Maxim. 

"We must make our nervous system our 
ally instead of our enemy." 

Seeing that habits are formed most readily 
when we are young, we must, writes James, 
"make automatic and habitual, as early as pos- 
sible, as many useful actions as we can, and as 
carefully guard against the growing into ways 
that are likely to be disadvantageous." 

for instance, is more or less aware that lie is playing a piece of 
music, and the absent-minded walker is not utterly oblivious to 
the fact that he is in a crowded street and in motion. What 
can be asserted is, that in such cases there is no persistent and 
discriminating attention to the details of the action.' " 

181 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



Second Maxim. 

"In the acquisition of a new habit or the 
leaving off of an old one, ive must take 
care to launch ourselves tvith as strong 
and decided an initiative as possible." 

Naturally the first days of the life of a new 
habit are critical. There is danger and diffi- 
culty to be faced, and hence, writes James, ' ' ac- 
cumulate all the possible circumstances which 
shall reinforce the right motives; put your- 
self assiduously in conditions that encourage 
the new way; make engagements incompatible 
with the old; make a public pledge if the case 
allows ; in short, envelope your resolution with 
every aid you know. This will give your new 
beginning such a momentum that the tempta- 
tion to break down will not occur as soon as it 
otherwise might; and every day during which 
a break-down is postponed adds to the chances 
of its not occurring at all." 

Third Maxim. 

"Never suffer an exception to occur till 
the new habit is securely rooted in your 
life." 

Professor Bain points out well the im- 
portance of this maxim: "It is necessary above 

182 



THE WILL AND HABIT 



all things,' ' he writes, "in such a situation 
never to lose a battle. Every gain on the wrong 
side undoes the effect of many conquests on 
the right. The essential precaution, therefore, 
is so to regulate the two opposing powers that 
the one may have a series of uninterrupted suc- 
cesses, until repetition has fortified it to such 
a degree as to enable it to cope with the oppo- 
sition under any circumstances. This is the 
theoretically best career of mental progress.' ' 

Fourth Maxim. 

"Seize the very first possible opportu- 
nity to act on every resolution you make, 
and on every emotional prompting you 
may experience in the direction of the 
habits you aspire to gain." 

The reason for this is that only in exercising 
resolutions are they really made. Then the 
brain cells and the physiological correlatives 
of the new resolution get their proper adjust- 
ments. "A tendency to act," writes James, 
"only becomes effectively ingrained in us in 
proportion to the uninterrupted frequency with 
which the actions actually occur, and the brain 
' grows' to their use. When a resolve or a fine 
glow of feeling is allowed to evaporate with- 

183 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



out bearing practical fruit, it is worse than a 
chance lost." 

In this maxim Professor James speaks of a 
resolution as though it were the same thing as 
habit. From one point of view there is little 
difference between the two. The resolution 
usually precedes the habit. The keeping of the 
resolution means the formation of the habit. 
The word habit, however, is more general and 
covers many involuntary kinds of acts which 
are outside the scope of deliberate resolve. 

Fifth Maxim. 

"Keep the faculty of effort alive in you 
by a little gratuitous exercise every 
day." 

This maxim does not refer directly to habit- 
formation. It suggests merely, in general, a 
method for toning up the will, so that it may 
be more likely to stand fast by its good habits. 4 

The evil effects of bad habits are known even 
to the youngest of us, for we see all around us 
the social and moral degradation which fol- 
lows, for example, the drink habit. Medical 
scientists have shown the swift deterioration 

4 For the quotation in full of James 's remarks on this maxim, 
see above, page 116. 

184 



THE WILL AND HABIT 



of the nervous system under the influence of 
alcohol and psychologists have shown the con- 
current deterioration of the mental faculties. 
For the moment we are concerned with the 
will, and shall dwell only on the evil effects 
of alcohol on this supreme faculty of man. 
The will, we have seen, like every other mental 
faculty, has a material correlative. It may be 
that this correlative is found in certain move- 
ments of the brain-cells; be that as it may, it 
is proved beyond question that volitional func- 
tioning deteriorates according as the alcohol 
habit grows. The dipsomaniac loses his power 
of healthy willing. He cannot make the eff ort 
required to resist his propensity. He is in- 
capable of calm deliberation. He is in no sense 
master of himself. He has lost his power of 
control and his senses and mental powers are 
dulled. His state is piteous in the extreme, 
yet, as Mr. Kerr 5 writes, ' ' serious as are the 
injuries inflicted by intoxicants on the intel- 
lectual faculties, the loss of inhibitive capacity 
is a hundredfold more detrimental. To these 
must be added the progressive paralysis of 
the will. The damage done to the understand- 
ing is great, but infinitely more terrible are the 
decrease of control and the benumbing of vo- 

B Quoted by Professor James. 
185 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



lition. Many inebriates, as long as they retain 
consciousness, through all their outbreaks 
know what they are doing, hate with a perfect 
hatred their drunken excesses, but are as un- 
able to exert their will as is a terror-stricken 
animal helpless under the fascination of a boa- 
constrictor. The moral faculties are even 
more deadened by the poison than the intellec- 
tual. Alcohol is a puissant will-paralyser. 
Such an inebriate is a captive, retaining the 
possession of his senses, though these are some- 
what dulled, and the will is powerless to make 
an effort at deliverance. Again and again does 
he resolve to drink no more, but resolution is 
overborne by the dominating drink impulse or 
drink crave. This volitional disablement, this 
palsy of the will, is a direct effect of a patho- 
logical degradation. ' ' 

The most pitiful thing about the inebriate is 
his incapacity to save himself — to make an ef- 
fort. He longs, often, to be free. He tries to 
brace up his will. He begs others to help him. 
He would pay any sum of money to be deliv- 
ered. He swears a thousand times that he will 
drink no more. He sobs when he looks at his 
patient, long-suffering wife, and at the pale, 
pinched faces of his children. He promises 
most solemnly that he will be sober henceforth 

186 



THE WILL AND HABIT 



— he takes his little youngest child in his arms 
and kisses away his fear and makes him laugh. 
And then, after all this, after all these good re- 
solves, he goes out and the very first wine-shop 
that he meets he enters, without the faintest 
effort at turning away. He falls, while the 
tears of repentance are still wet on his 
cheeks. 

I shall not enter into details as to the exact 
effects of alcohol in the system. Suffice it to 
say that it poisons the blood, and that the 
blood is no longer able to nourish the nerve- 
tissues. As a consequence the healthiness and 
capacity for work of the inebriate diminishes. 
Just as vigorous health, full pure-blooded fit- 
ness, is the optimal condition for making voli- 
tional effort, so the nervous debility consequent 
on intoxication is the worst possible condition 
for such effort-making. He may think, and his 
friends may think that he could, if he tried, give 
up drink — but when things have gone far it is 
all but impossible. Only extraordinary circum- 
stances, and the help of God's grace, can then 
save him. 

It is in presence of such considerations that 
Professor James writes as follows: "The hell 
to be endured hereafter, of which Theology 
tells, is no worse than the hell we make for our- 

187 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



selves in this world by habitually fashioning our 
characters in the wrong way. Could the young 
but realise how soon they will become mere 
walking bundles of habits, they would give more 
heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. 
We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, 
and never to be undone.' ' 

We have seen how habit is founded both in 
the material and spiritual side of human na- 
ture — in the brain-cells and in the facility with 
which the will itself remakes former decisions 
or choices. We have seen too the vast signifi- 
cance of habit, its importance for good or for 
evil. To use Carlyle's words, " Habit is the 
deepest law of human nature. It is our su- 
preme strength: if also, in certain circum- 
stances, our miserablest weakness." We have 
also seen the maxims which Professor James 
has formulated for the benefit of those about 
to form habits. It now remains for us to see 
why we are creatures of habit; that is, for 
what purpose we are by nature made to de- 
pend so much on habit. 

The first reason is that habit means economy 
of effort. Towards it all volitional function- 
ing naturally tends. It should not be consid- 
ered as an evil but as a manifestation of the 
protective and economising tendency of our na- 

188 



THE WILL AND HABIT 



ture. It shows that, as Mr. Stout says, 6 "it 
lies in the essential nature of conation that 
conative processes should cease, if and so far 
as their end is attained. ' ' Habit has been called 
a "labour-saving invention' ' enabling us to get 
along with less output of strength both in men- 
tal and material occupations. In the case of 
oft-made choices it is most remarkable what an 
economy takes place, and how habit or autom- 
atism enters in. Indeed, the only wasteful 
tendency is hesitation. 

"It suffices for the moment to point out that 
Hesitation is, so to say, the natural enemy of 
Volitional Economy. 7 It upsets Automatism, 
causes the mind to weary itself and waste its 
force by useless oscillations. It doubles and 
trebles the usual number of phenomena, length- 
ens, often immensely, the time-duration, upsets 
the continuity and evenness of the choice- 
process and introduces irregularity and incon- 
sistency. On such occasions, Automatism 
sometimes seems to take revenge, for the Hesi- 
tation may close abruptly by the lightning flash 
of an automatic tendency towards the Critical 
Zone ; the choice thus finishes suddenly, and the 
Hesitation is stopped." 

6 "Manual of Psychology, ' ' p. 111. 

7 ' ' Motive Force and Motivation Tracks, p. 155. 



189 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



A second reason why nature has made us 
creatures of habit is for our own safety. At 
every moment we are saved by our habits from 
mistakes and mishaps. It is well known that 
no chauffeur or aeroplanist is safe until he can 
manage his machine in a perfectly habitual 
way, until he can almost manage it when asleep. 
Habit also makes the typist or telegraphist ex- 
pert. Art must become a habit before perfect 
security and skill are attained. 

Not only is habit economising, and protec- 
tive, but it also tells for efficiency, It is only 
the player, to take a commonplace example, 
who has reduced all his best strokes to per- 
fectly automatic movements, who can be con- 
sidered a really efficient batsman. For him, 
as for the motorist and the rest, habit means 
less fatigue, less risk, and greater accuracy. 

There is, of course, a less serious side to 
the question of habit. Men become, at times, 
slaves to habits of a very trivial kind. ' ' Schil- 
ler 8 could never write with ease unless there 
were rotting apples in the drawer of his desk 
from which he could now and then obtain an 
odour which seemed to him sweet. Wagner re- 
quired a certain costume before he could com- 
pose corresponding parts of his operas. Glad- 

8 "Mental Growth and Control," Oppenheim, p. 153. 
190 



THE WILL AND HABIT 



stone had different desks for his different ac- 
tivities, so that when he worked on Homer he 
never sat among the habitual accompaniments 
of his legislative labours.' ' The story of Em- 
manuel Kant and the button of the Konigsberg 
student is well known. During his lectures, 
and they were most learned and carefully pre- 
pared, he never looked his audience in the face, 
but always fixed his eye on one member of it. 
Now, one of his students began to notice that, 
during lectures, Kant always fixed his eye on 
him, and kept staring all the time at a certain 
button of his coat. Well, one day, an unpar- 
donable spirit of levity seized him. Before go- 
ing into the lecture he took a knife and cut 
off the mystic button that used to catch Kant 's 
eye. Forthwith he entered the hall and sat 
down in his accustomed place. As usual the 
lecture started, and as usual Kant's eye wan- 
dered round until it rested on the student, then 
on his coat, then it sought in vain the missing 
button. Then Kant stopped. All his lecture 
quite left him. He blundered and fumbled, 
and, at last, unable to continue, got up and went 
out. As regards the overcoming of undesirable 
habits, two things must be remembered. The 
first is that the stronger and more efficient 
one's will is, the easier it will be to make or 

191 



STKENGTHOFWILL 



unmake a habit. The first step, therefore, 
towards ridding oneself of undesirable hab- 
its must be to train the will. The second thing 
to be remembered is that in will-battles we 
must apply the principle: divide et impera. A 
small, well-defined resolution must be made 
which is calculated to run counter to, and undo, 
the habit of which one wishes to get rid. This 
small resolution must be tenaciously and per- 
sistently observed until a new and better habit 
is formed. Thus by habit habit will be over- 
come. We shall close this section by quoting 
from Dr. Oppenheim's "Mental Growth and 
Control." 9 "If you want to abolish a habit, 
and its accumulated circumstances as well, you 
must grapple with the matter as earnestly as 
you would with a physical enemy. You must 
go into the encounter with all tenacity of de- 
termination, with all fierceness of resolve, — 
yea, even with a passion for success that may 
be called vindictive. No human enemy can be 
as insidious, as persevering, as unrelenting as 
an unfavourable habit. It never sleeps, it needs 
no rest. ... It is like a parasite that grows 
with the growth of the supporting body. And 
like a parasite it can best be killed by violent 
separation and crushing.' ' 

9 p. 159. 

192 



SECTION XIV 
THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 



SECTION xrv 

THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 

The subject of sensuality is not an easy nor 
an agreeable one to treat of, yet it would be 
affectation and not modesty to pass over it in 
silence when writing about will-training. Sen- 
suality, whatever form it takes, means the tri- 
umph of the flesh over the spirit. It means 
weakness and softness of character, and is the 
direct antithesis of that spiritual strength and 
virility which accompanies will-power. To give 
way habitually to sensuality means the aban- 
donment of self-control and the death of the 
will. It means that concupiscence usurps the 
throne of the will; that sense and not the soul 
is master. 

Of the more common form of sensuality, 
to which the wide term immorality is often re- 
stricted, M. Jules Payot well describes the con- 
sequences. 1 

"The health is seriously impaired by such 

The Education of the Will" (English Transl.), p. 311. 
195 



i a i 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



( 






excesses; the young people who commit them 
get an oldish look. They have a feeling of 
weakness in the back, muscular debility, and a 
sensation of pressure in the spinal cord, slight 
symptoms which pass unnoticed in the excite- 
ment of physical, animal exuberance. They lose 
their colour and freshness, their eyes look dull 
and heavy, and have dark rings under them. 
Their faces have a depressed look. Everything 
indicates a fatigue which, if frequently experi- 
enced, soon saps the very springs of life; it, 
to a certain extent, prepares the way for gas- 
tralgias, neuralgias, hypertrophy of the heart, 
and weakness of sight, all of which begin at 
about thirty years of age to make life miser- 
able for those who have not been keen enough 
to foresee the consequences of indulgence. But 
the body is not the only thing to feel the disas- 
trous influence of sensuality, the memory be- 
comes astonishingly weak, and the mind loses 
all its buoyancy and vigour. It begins to feel 
dull and to move sluggishly, as if overcome by 
torpor. The attention is weak and wandering. 
The days slip by in apathetic indifference, ac- 
companied by a feeling of listlessness and dis- 
heartening laziness. Above all there is that 
loss of virile joy in work, and it becomes a bore 
the moment it lacks its material recompense. 

196 



THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 

"Finally the habit of physical pleasure sub- 
stitutes coarser and more violent emotions for 
the gentler but more lasting emotions of the 
mind. Their excitement and agitation destroy 
the joy that is to be found in calmer pleasures. 
And as sensual pleasures are short in duration, 
and are followed by fatigue and disgust, the 
character becomes habitually despondent and 
morose, with a sense of depression which 
drives one to find relief in violent, boisterous, 
brutal pleasures. It is a discouraging vicious 
circle. ' ' 

That this picture is not overdrawn we 
know only too well. Every great Catholic 
preacher has at one time or another to paint 
it. In his "Conferences de Notre-Dame" 
Lacordaire thus portrayed the victims of "the 
depraved sense." "Those men who in the 
flower of their age already exhibit the ravages 
of time; who, degenerate before having at- 
tained the full birth of their being, display a 
brow that is prematurely lined, eyes that are 
vague and sunken, lips that seem powerless to 
represent goodness — they drag on, under a sun 
hardly risen, a worn-out existence.' ' 

The havoc wrought in the soul of the de- 
bauche is still worse than that wrought in his 
body. Grace, which sanctifies and beautifies 

197 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



the soul, is driven out. Darkness and disease 
replace light and health. The noble impulses 
which urge a pure soul towards God, the source 
of all goodness, give way to base instincts 
prompting towards selfish and vain pleasure. 
Conscience too is blunted, and the sense of what 
is right and just is dulled. What Pere Gillet 
calls a ' 'ferocious egoism' ' leads step by step 
to the ruin of the fair temple of the Holy 
Spirit. 

The social evil consequent on sensuality is 
likewise considerable. The selfishness of im- 
morality is proverbial. Suffering is inflicted on 
others without hesitation. Many are robbed of 
their rights that the cravings of one man's 
passion may be satisfied. We cannot refrain 
from quoting a further passage from the " Con- 
ferences' ' in which Lacordaire shows what an 
"anti-social" crime sensuality is. "I main- 
tain," he said, "that I have never encountered 
tenderness in a libertine. I have never met 
a loving spirit but in those who were either 
ignorant of evil or were struggling against it. 
Because, once habituated to violent emotions, 
how can the heart, that is so delicate a plant, 
that is nourished by the dew falling from 
heaven, that is swayed by the lightest breath, 
made happy for days by the remembrance of 

198 



THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 

the spoken word, by the glance bestowed, by 
the encouragement given to it by the lips of a 
mother, or the hand-grasp of a friend; how 
shall that which is so calm a movement, that 
which, naturally, is almost insensible, because 
of its very sensibility, and its alarm lest one 
breath of love should break it, if God had made 
it less profound, — how, I say, can this heart 
oppose its gentle and frail joys to those coarse 
emotions of the depraved sense? The one is 
selfish, the other generous; the one lives for 
self, the other outside self ; of these two tenden- 
cies one must prevail. If the depraved sense 
has its way, the heart decays little by little — 
it loses its capacity for simple joys, it tends 
no longer towards others, it finally pulsates 
only in relation to the course of the blood, 
and marks the hours of that shameless time, 
the flight of which is hastened by debauchery." 
It is not necessary to dwell further on the 
evil consequences, whether personal or so- 
cial, of sensuality. Our point of view is en- 
tirely practical, and our sole duty is to con- 
sider how far will-psychology can aid religion 
in its work of fortifying the souls of the young 
against evil. As we have pointed out before, 
religion by itself affords a most effective 
training ground for character. Eeligion can 

199 



STRENGTH OFWILL 



and does supply means for safeguarding the 
young against sensuality. By the practice of 
religion in using the sacraments, in praying, 
in assisting at Mass, abundant grace is ob- 
tained for fighting evil instincts, and not a few 
Catholic youths in every country, and perhaps 
very many, for we cannot tell how many, pass 
through the fire unburned. Professor For- 
ster, a non-Catholic, thus writes: " Religion 
is so fundamental and indispensable that with- 
out it the young, especially those of strong 
temperament, will strive in vain to live con- 
tinently and — if we except a few rare cases — 
to banish and overcome violent temptations.' ' 
In grace men find their chief ally. That fact 
is certain, though of course some non-Catholics 
deny it. However, it is no less true that hu- 
man means can also help to prepare the young 
for the battle against sensuality, and among 
these means the training of the will takes a 
foremost place. 

We must now refer briefly to that problem 
which confronts educationalists as to the best 
method of ' ' educating to purity. ' ' 2 Very di- 
verse views are held on this matter, neverthe- 
less German and American writers, Catholic 

a Vide, i * Educating to Purity, ' ' by Fr. Gutterer, S. J., and 
Fr. Krus, S. J. 

200 



THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 

and non-Catholic, on the whole seem to favour 
a methodical, though of course very prudent, 
instruction in " moral hygiene.' ' Such instruc- 
tion must as far as possible have religion as its 
mouthpiece, and it must aim at inculcating the 
need of moral strength. For knowledge of 
good and evil, unaccompanied by the power 
and grace to choose good and avoid evil, is un- 
questionably a danger. 

"Education to Purity" must of course be 
adapted to the special circumstances of a coun- 
try. If, as it seems in Germany, there is a 
veritable anti-purity propaganda, no doubt a 
more complete instruction is possible and is 
called for. Such a state of things appears to 
prevail, at least, in some parts of Germany. 
I quote a passage from Professor Paulsen's 
work already referred to: "It appears as if 
all the devils were let loose at present to lay 
waste the domain of German social life. There 
is an organised traffic promoting horrible 
crimes. Eaving women proclaim in pamphlets 
and novels 'the right to motherhood/ twaddling 
poets preach to ripe youth the necessity and 
the right to pursue the pleasures of which some 
people seek to deprive them. The newspaper 
world, theatres, novels, lectures by men and 
women, would seem to force upon the public 

201 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



as the foremost question, 'must not all obsta- 
cles to free sexual life be driven from the 
earth V " 

There is no doubt that in many cases "sex- 
education" is overdone. Some men have a 
morbid anxiety to treat the question on all pos- 
sible occasions, and often with infinitesimal dis- 
cretion. Fr. Van der Donckt in his book, 3 
' 'Educating to Purity," refers to such folk. 
"A further special danger of corruption lies in 
the craze for sexual enlightenment which — as 
if the easily excited imagination of children 
still needs violent stimuli — consists in the most 
heedless exposition and description of the 
merely physiological side of sexual matters, 
whereas the material side ought to be kept in 
the background through the emphasising of the 
moral. ' ' 

Professor Forster, while admitting the neces- 
sity of a certain judicious instruction, recom- 
mends as the best type of indirect enlightenment 
instruction on the building up of will-power. He 
himself when asked to give a conference to a 
school on the sex-problem chose as his sub- 
ject: "The Gymnastics of the Will." In so 
doing he pointed out what appears a very good 
solution of this difficult problem. His solution 

8 p. 28. 

202 



THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 

appears to be this — in the course of a lecture 
on the need and importance of strength of will, 
and self-control, to point out in a prudent way 
the attacks which are delivered by passion 
against the dominion of the soul. The nature 
of these attacks may be described with some 
reference to physiology, but emphasis should 
be laid on the force and holiness of grace, com- 
ing from the use of the sacraments, whereby \ 
man remains lord of himself, and the image of ! 
God. 

For Catholics, the confessional is naturally 
the place for more delicate and more detailed 
instruction. And it is certainly within the 
scope of Catholic teachers to urge their boys 
to seek, in Confession, whatever instruction 
may allay their doubts and troubles of mind. 
Instruction in the confessional also has the ad- 
vantage of avoiding that chief difficulty which 
educationalists experience of speaking to an 
audience of several persons on such matters. 
For with such an audience it is inevitable that 
what may be good and salutary for some may 
be unwholesome for others. 4 

4 We cannot refrain from quoting, at this point, from a paper 
read at the "International Congress of Moral Education/ ' 
held at The Hague in 1912, by Mile. E. Simon, on the question 
of training the will in childhood. 

"L 'enfant est porte par instinct vers tout ce qui flatte les 
203 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



Instruction for Catholics will, of course, 
recommend as " special safeguards" against 
sinful forms of sensuality, (1) Frequent Com- 
munion, (2) Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 
(3) Hard Work and Penance. It will inculcate 
the need of high ideals and self-sacrifice for fel- 
low-men. It will insist on a " fight to the finish ' ' 
in spite of falls and lapses, and will show, on 
sound bases of history and physiology, the pos- 
sibility of chastity and its great physical, in- 
tellectual, and moral blessings. It will propose 
too the examples of heroic virtue to be found 
in great number among the Saints of the 
Church, and will record the wise sayings of 

sens et les procedes de 1 'education en usage aujourd'hui ne 
tendent que trop a developper ee penchant. 

' ' Cette mollesse dont on se mefie peu est eependant pleine de 
dangers: elle rend incapable de tout vertu, elle ouvre la porte 
a, tous les vices, elle enleve toute 6nergie au caractere, elle 
empeche la formation de la volonte en laissant l'ame subir le 
joug du corps et ce corps lui-meme est sans force et sans 
vigueur. C'est pourquoi, en vue de combattre le sensualisme, 
on doit entredire a, 1 'enfant les aliments et les boissons qui 
n'ont d 'autre but que de flatter le palais, ses vetements seront 
modestes et peu luxueux; on evitera par la tout ce qui peut 
encourager la vanite et faire naitre les idees de superiority. . . . 
On endurcira le corps par 1 'usage de l'eau froide et des exer- 
cises qui developpent les muscles. En fait d 'amusement qu'on 
ne perd jamais de vue que les concerts en general, les sorties 
du carnival, les theatres, les bals d'enfants, font une triste 
impression sur l'ame et amollissent la volonte." 

204 



THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 

good men. "I have never," wrote a Swedish 
professor, Dr. Bibbing, "in my twenty years' 
experience with young and old, come across at 
single one who declared self-mastery in sexual 
matters impossible, provided, of course, there 
be good will.'' 

We have dwelt somewhat at length on this 
subject for the reason that the will is looked on N 
as man's natural weapon against sensuality, 
and chastity is called "the triumph of the 
will." Why this is so we shall now proceed to 
show, although of course in this context we 
speak not of the will in its purely natural state, 
but of the will inspired and strengthened by 
grace. 

From experience we know that action 
arouses our noblest instincts. In the examples 
of strenuous lives we find inspiration. In the 
prospects of future action we place our ideals. 
To act and to achieve calls out all that is best 
from within us. The energy that then awakens 
is our purest and noblest force. And if it is 
invoked to serve a good purpose, we at once 
leave the shadows of sense-life for fields of 
action. 

Now the life of action is the life of the will. 
It is the will that provokes to action. In doing 
so it not only limits and opposes sensuality, 

205 



STRENGTH OFWILL 



but it banishes it for the moment. It means 
that the life of the spirit takes the place of the 
life of the senses. That virility reigns instead 
of softness and day-dreaming. 

The will, according as it grows stronger and 
is capable of more frequent and more strenu- 
ous efforts, naturally limits and opposes sen- 
suality more and more. It begins to make at- 
tacks on luxuries, even legitimate luxuries, and 
awakens a tendency towards a "hard" life. 
We begin to rid ourselves under its influence 
of what is unnecessary. Perhaps we give up 
smoking, drinking wine, and wearing luxurious 
clothing. We begin to arise earlier in the 
morning, and more punctually, and we feel the 
need for harder work and more strenuous ex- 
ercise. Still the life of the will, inspired of 
course by religion, leads us further afield, and 
we strive to cultivate the higher virtues of 
manhood that mean self-perfection. Sins of 
the flesh are now particularly odious to us, for 
they are the very essence of that sensuality 
which ,we have conquered. Nobler and higher 
ideals fill our minds and perhaps, should the 
grace be given us, we become great forces for 
good. 

The life of the will then means the death of 
sensuality. But this must be prepared for by 

206 



THE WILL AND SENSUALITY 

constant will-exercises. "The will must be 
thoroughly trained for years, as there is no spe- 
cific which can be prescribed at the moment of 
danger. ' ' 5 Nothing can take the place of 
methodical exercises. "Will-power is built up (*1 
by a gradual process of practice on the small- } 
est things and every act of self -conquest in one/ 
sphere of life makes the battle easier in all 
the other spheres. ' ' 6 These exercises, inspired 
as they will be in the minds of Catholics by 
religious motives, will inevitably lead to self- 
conquest if faithfully persisted in. They can- 
not be replaced by irregular and ill-organised 
incursions into other methods of penance or 
mortification. An occasional discipline, or day 
spent in wearing a hair-shirt, or a triduum of 
fasting and chains, will not suffice. Will-ex- 
ercises must be methodical and ivell-regulated 
as to degree and length, or else they are per- 
haps worse than useless. 

To sum up, then, our views on the problem of 
the conquest of sensuality. To us the solution 
seems to lie in a good method of will-training 
inspired by and supported by religion. No 
doubt prudent education in moral doctrines is 
absolutely essential also. But the main force 



5 Professor Paulsen. 

6 Professor Forster. 



207 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



from within, which is to fight and win the bat- 
tle against sensuality, is will-force, developed 
by methodical exercises, and inspired by re- 
ligion. 



208 



SECTION XV 
FURTHER FACTS ABOUT THE WILL 



SECTION XV 

FURTHER FACTS ABOUT THE WILL 

In this section we propose to record some ob- 
servations on will-phenomena which may be of 
interest, and perhaps of nse to students of 
will-psychology. We shall give them without 
any effort at classification, or order, and with- 
out claiming for them any particular value, 
save what is derived from the fact that they 
are the outcome of an experience of some thou- 
sands of experiments on the will. Drawn as 
they are from introspections they are naturally 
tinged with subjectivity, but that, as we have 
already pointed out, does not deprive them of 
all value and trustworthiness. 



(1) The Will Within 

In making efforts we are intimately con- 
scious that now, somewhere within, there is an 
active driving-force, tending outwards and on- 

211 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



wards. "Something deep and strong and of 
worth. ' ' 1 It is " something I have, yet which 
is myself.' ' "It is not thought nor emotion 
nor feeling. Will-movement is something dis- 
tinct from thought or emotion. It is a tendency 
of the soul with a consciousness of tending, 
and a warmth and colour about it." My will 
is I, an "active I" — "not knowledge, nor im- 
age, nor feeling, nor sensation." It is "ear- 
nest," "arbitrary," "moral," "practical." 
"The will was certainly there working with- 
in," and "it was going to go through the task," 
and so I "felt inclined to look and tend straight 
outwards, forwards," amid its "undulations 
and heaves." There is something "inexor- 
able," "powerful and supreme," "practical," 
and "earnest," some personal force "acting 
along the predetermined lines" of a resolution. 

(2) The Will Elan 

It is called up, yet it seems to spring up nat- 
urally, unprovoked, and it does so again and 
again as if by habit. From whence does it 
come? And what limit is there to the number 
of times it can come? This "deep spontane- 

1 Quotation marks indicate verbatim quotation from intro- 
spections. 

212 



PUETHEEFACTS ABOUT THE WILL 

ons will-movement, ' ' this " strong heave of the 
will," " tides over a strain/ ' intensifying the 
will-act, as it repeats itself. It is calm, not 
excited, but tiring. It is an indeliberate "will 
to will." 

(3) Will-Feeling 

Accompanies "the consciousness of doing 
something in virtue of a law." It marks "the 
being (actively) in harmony with a law." It 
is "dull, mental, non-sensual, steady, cheerful; 
a distinct central feeling, " " a sense of doing. ' ' 
It marks "action rather than submission. " 
"Time goes quickly when the characteristic, 
manly, reassuring will-feeling is present." 
There is something fresh, and strange about 
it, as though the action it accompanies "willing 
one's will" were an unaccustomed act. It is 
a bracing and ennobling feeling, and seems to 
tone one up. 

(4) Feeling and Willing 

A sense of satisfaction is sometimes experi- 
enced when the will is making efforts which 
are causing intense physical pain. This shows 
the difference between feeling and will, and 
"the 'anti-ness' between the will and the physi- 

213 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



cal part." "I realised that there is an infinite 
difference between feeling pain and difficulty 
and giving in." "Every fresh arm-ache 
brought back the will to make another effort." 
1 ' The will is in its own sphere ; physical suffer- 
ing is in another." 



(5) Will-Set 

The will somehow becomes focused. It 
takes up a position and seems to tend in a di- 
rection. "The will was quite fixed and set- 
tled." "The set of the will is recognisable. It 
is very intimate, interior, and spiritual. It 
means a kind of direction." A kind of will- 
tension is experienced, and "introduces a uni- 
versal tension in the body." When a resolu- 
tion has taken root, the will becomes possessed 
of a certain semi-physical attitude. "My will 
is set and my hands will have to stop up there. ' ' 
"I saw and knew that my will was 'taken' and 
was for my hands being up there. So I knew 
that they would stop up there." "The will is 
firmly set, hence the task will be accom- 
plished." Quite akin to this will-set is the in- 
tention as it appears in consciousness. "The 
intention takes the form of a dull forward 

214 



FUETHEEFACTS ABOUT THE WILL 

movement towards a vague, dark, dimly under- 
stood blotch which stands for the task." 



(6) Will-Associations 

Just as one image tends to draw another im- 
age into the field of consciousness, so one will- 
phenomenon tends to call up another will-phe- 
nomenon. The word will itself "has a curious 
attraction and awakens deep associations." It 
provokes the will- feeling and "awakens deep 
emotions." "The word will awakened deep 
and noble sentiments. ' ' It seems somehow to 
arouse the will-atmosphere of which we spoke. 
"It has associations of a deep nature. " It 
drives away ennui. "When the will is present 
ennui is absent/ ' It stirs up a sense of confi- 
dence and power and a "sense of nobility, and 
manfulness, and dignity.' ' "Will-feeling was 
awakened by the sound and sight of the word 
will." 

(7) My Will 

"My will seems a redundant phrase." Cer- 
tainly my will is something which I can, so to 
speak, stand and watch as a thing apart, and 
yet in doing so I feel that I am watching my- 
self at work. "My will seems a strange 

215 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



phrase." Will is not something possessed, it 
is something lived. "I will train my will" — 
means self-commanding and obeying self. "I 
saw the effect (in myself) of obedience to my 
will." "The force of will in subjecting to it- 
self the hand came home to me — this braced 
up my will." "I felt that my will was well in 
hand." "I stood watching the power of my 
will." At times we clearly see how we will 
will, how we provoke, by means of onr will, will 
acts. ' ' The will did not allow the will to waver 
or falter for an instant." 

(8) Intensity of Willing 

To will with full intensity it is necessary to 
have a strong motive, a well-defined end in 
view, a well-focused voluntary attention, 
freshness of mind and body, and important is- 
sues at stake which are clearly understood 
(implying "a scale of values clearly and defi- 
nitely known"), finally confidence of triumph. 
i l The intensity of willing seems to be measured 
by the certainty of the task being completed. ' ' 
The intensifying of the will-act is partly de- 
liberate, partly indeliberate, for as we have 
seen the elans by which it is intensified come 
sometimes spontaneously and sometimes at 

216 



FURTHERFACTSABOUT THE WILL 

one's call. By ivilling will we strengthen the 
will-act. 

The signs of a really intense will-act are 
mainly these. The feeling of willing is more 
noticeable and deeper. We feel more wholly 
associated with and identified with the act. All 
our powers seem to be united and directed 
without hitch in the direction of the end in 
view. 

(9) Strengthening Motives 

To produce a really intense will-act our mo- 
tives must be strengthened. This happens if 
the motive remains alive at the focus of con- 
sciousness for a time, or by virtue of contrast 
with less worthy motives, or by being subsumed 
under some acceptable general law, or by ca- 
price, or by some physical act which brings 
it more forcibly before consciousness. The last 
means of motive-strengthening is seen in the 
following quotation: "The task grew easier 
as I gazed at my hands and said to myself, 
' I've only to keep them there, and that isn't 
hard.' " Or again, "The strengthening 
thought was, 'the hands will stop up there all 
right for five minutes, don't be afraid.' " A 
feeling of assured confidence tends to strength- 
en motives as well as will. "The task, of 

217 



STRENGTHOFWILL 



course, will be fulfilled, and it has got to be 
fulfilled. ' ' This feeling is a " certainty of mind 
that I should achieve the fulfilment of the task. ' ' 

(10) Pleasure of Willing 

We, of ten feel willing "to be grand, and re- 
freshing, and bracing," but there is further a 
distinct feeling of pleasure — "a strange quiet 
feeling of pleasure in exercising this faculty 
of the will, for such I took it to be." There 
is a sentiment of dignity and cheerfulness 
which elevates this pleasure, "a feeling of dig- 
nity and self-respect." "I felt the nobility of 
doing a will-task." "I felt it a manly, noble 
thing to exercise the will." "I experienced a 
sentiment of moral satisfaction," and "felt 
brave, strong, full of will-power and confi- 
dent." 

(11) Reality of Willing 

"I assured myself repeatedly that the will 
really willed to keep the hands up there. That 
was the only thing of importance. If the will 
to keep the hands up there was true, real and 
sincere, the hands would, of course, stop up 
there." When, in willing, you mean, then you 
know you mean. A real resolution is regis- 

218 



FURTHER FACTS ABOUT THE WILL 

tered internally and acts very effectively. 
Often we connect physical effort with willing. 
It is not it but is connected with it. Physical 
movements, i. e., external signs of willing, seem 
to help on willing. Slow movements seem to 
help to greater deliberation. But perfect will- 
ing ought to be independent of such aids. Real 
willing is allied with thoughts rather than with 
physical action. The semblance of willing (to 
frown and square the jaws and clasp the fists 
tightly, etc.) should not be taken for the re- 
ality. Physical tension is no more tvill than 
feeling or emotion. "Willing should be closely 
connected with the mind. It should be the 
faithful and precise fulfilling of the resolution 
— not more nor less." 



(12) Concern About the End 

During a will-task thought is constantly turn- 
ing towards the end. Is it far off or near! 
Shall I be able to hold out? A yearning is ex- 
perienced, a need or want to be at the end. "I 
felt at once the craving to be at No. 100." "I 
realised that the will is a tendency which needs 
to be satisfied." I felt a " tension to get the 
thing done," and was conscious of "tending 
towards the end," and of "an effort to reach 

219 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



the goal." This impatience to satisfy the 
conative desire is not always present. "I was 
not overanxious to finish but was quite satis- 
fied to be performing the task." This "con- 
cern about the end" emphasises how much the 
will has to do with the future. i • The future al- 
ways enters into will-acts." "I realised how 
much one controls and commands the future by 
a resolution." The will is "a reign of purpose, 
endeavour, and seriousness," for the reason 
that it means the striving for a bonum, for 
something which will compel and perfect us. 

(13) Physical Exercise and Will 

"Physical exercises seem to brace me up and 
stir up true willing better in me than petty 
exercises. Is this because I am something 
more of an animal than a thinking being?" 
The reason perhaps is that such exercises, by 
improving the circulation of the blood, render 
it more easy to will, while the external move- 
ments may, by resembling the external signs 
of willing or by amplifying them, help on will- 
ing. "The physical exercises seem to fit in 
well with will — to go well with willing." Still 
when some small, unimportant task is given 
one experiences the sense of willing and sees 

220 



FURTHERFACTS ABOUT THE WILL 

that any task may become a will-task. "I re- 
alised that triviality has nothing to do with 
the question of willing," that physical "easi- 
ness or difficulty does not matter." "What does 
matter is "to act along the lines of a resolu- 
tion." 

(14) Willing "Non-Will" 

It seems impossible to produce by a will- 
act a state of complete inertia, listlessness and 
non-will. One can become somewhat like an 
inert log but still the will is not wholly inac- 
tive. The will-element can be "diminished" 
considerably by awakening "sleepiness, weari- 
ness, and depression," but it is impossible to 
wholly banish will. The sensations of heavi- 
ness, inertia, aimlessness and ennui may be 
clearly present, but such states do not and can- 
not allay the will. 

When acting against the grain a worried, 
fretful, depressed feeling is experienced, and 
the will seems to come to a stop-still. But this 
is more apparent than real. The will is acting 
all the time, though perhaps subconsciously. 

Such observations as those which we have 
given will, we fear, prove uninteresting to most 
of our readers. They will seem far-fetched and 

221 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



perhaps hardly intelligible. In many cases our 
phrases will seem words and nothing more. 
But for those who have patiently studied the 
ways and moods of the will and who have 
grasped the fact that the will is a vital some- 
thing working within, different from all our 
other faculties, and more subtle and delicate 
in its movements than any of them, these de- 
scriptions and reflections will not be without 
value. At worst they will prove suggestive, 
and will afford matter for speculation. 



222 



EPILOGUE 
THE FUTUKE OF WILL PSYCHOLOGY 



EPILOGUE 

THE FUTURE OF WILL PSYCHOLOGY 

It is a difficult matter to foretell the part that 
a particular science is to play in life. And 
in the case of a psychology it is all the more 
difficult. This is partly due to the fact that 
the actual progress that such a science is mak- 
ing is hidden ; it cannot easily be observed. It 
is quite another thing with regard to a physi- 
cal science. The swift and sure advances of 
electricity and chemistry are visible to every 
eye. The rate at which they are progressing 
is startling. But it is not so with psychologi- 
cal sciences. 

That psychology is progressing we have no 
doubt. The new pedagogy has unquestionably 
forged ahead and solved some minor problems. 
The art of training memory and imagination 
has been perfected, and very useful additions 
to our knowledge of the "mind of the child' ' 
have been won. In other directions too the 
work of modern psychology has been far from 

225 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



fruitless; criminology, the study of nervous 
and mental diseases, hysteria, suggestion, and 
hallucination, the "psychology of the crowd' ' 
and of peoples, graphology, together with the 
psychology of the senses and of mysticism — 
these and other fields of research have been 
tilled by psychologists with success. But the 
fact still remains that no progress in any 
measure as definite or as obvious as that of 
physics or chemistry has been made. 

There is no doubt that modern life shows a 
knowledge of psychology which in many ways 
is remarkable. As a single instance of this we 
have the modern art of advertising. But it is 
by no means sure that this new art is due to 
" scientific' ' psychology, and is not the appli- 
cation of keen business intellects to the prob- 
lem of how to attract attention. In other prov- 
inces of psychology much the same may be said. 
There are few changes introduced into the up- 
to-date schoolroom which "the man in the 
street" could not have hit upon. Nor is there 
much in what psychology says of "sugges- 
tion" and "hallucination" which an intelligent 
physician would not have thought of for him- 
self. But no one would assert the same of the 
discoveries in the domains of physical sci- 
ences. These are far beyond the abilities of 

226 



EPILOGUE 



the plain man, and it needed a Marconi to dis- 
cover wireless telegraphy and an Edison to in- 
vent the phonograph. 

From all this it mnst not be thought that 
the work of psychologists is futile or super- 
fluous. It is less "sensational," if you will, 
than the work of great chemists, but it is none 
the less important. It is their part to pursue 
and extend the knowledge that the human mind 
has of itself. To advance little by little the 
frontier line which parts the known from the 
unknown in the various regions of the mind, 
and to analyse with infinite patience those ap- 
parently insignificant and minor phases of 
mental activity which are just observable and 
little more. They must be content too, in many 
cases, with the rewards which a theoretic sci- 
ence can give, for often their researches into 
the human mind are such as to have little sig- 
nificance for the practical world outside. 
Knowledge of this kind cannot beautify a man- 
sion or make a tramcar run more smoothly. 
But nevertheless it tends to satisfy a need in 
the soul of man, and help him in some small 
way towards his self-perfection. 

Modern psychology then renders our knowl- 
edge of the mind more clear, more complete, 
and more precise, besides of course extending 

227 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



it somewhat — and in this lies its raison d'etre. 

Having thus far treated of psychology in 
general, we must now turn to consider will- 
psychology. 

Will-psychology has, perhaps more than any 
other department of psychology, a practical 
bearing. It studies the guiding force that 
shapes and directs our lives. It is the science 
of the concrete principle of human action. It 
aims at gaining a knowledge of that principle 
which will enable us to perfect it and so per- 
fect ourselves. It is intimately concerned in 
many grave problems of ethics and religion. 
In its progress lies our hope of solving some 
of the many difficulties which cluster round 
1 ' character- formation. ' ' And it is not too much 
to say, if we admit as most of us do that reform 
must commence at home, within ourselves, 
that the progress of will-psychology is likely 
indirectly, at least, to help in social reform. 
But more sure will be its influence in the sphere 
of education, should it advance to any consid- 
erable extent. 

We come now to ask ourselves the straight 
question, What future lies before will-psy- 
chology? Is it likely that the hopes placed in 
it will be fulfilled? Is the day to come when 
a really efficient system of will-training will 

228 



EPILOGUE 



prevail ? and when men will be as well equipped 
with regard to their wills as they are to-day 
with regard to their intellects? In fine, is it 
probable that some change for the better will 
be wrought among men by improved methods 
of will-culture? 

Before attempting even a partial answer to 
these questions, we propose to point out a few 
of the likely, or at least possible developments 
of will-psychology. 

First of all, it is fair to suppose that the 
methods and technique of will-psychology will 
improve a great deal. They have already im- 
proved much, as the researches undertaken at 
Wiirzburg, Louvain and elsewhere show. It 
is fair, too, to suppose that a great increase 
will take place in the number and variety of 
researches in this department of psychology. 
There is a certain natural interest in will-prob- 
lems which is likely to ensure this, especially 
when greater facilities for such researches are 
to be had. These facilities will be insufficient 
until many laboratories are set up with the sole 
object of will-research, and until a central 
laboratory for the purpose of coordinating the 
results gained is established. 

When a sufficient number of laboratories are 
229 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



set up investigations will be carried into many 
untrodden or but half -trodden fields. The vo- 
litional phenomena of normal and abnormal 
types will be carefully studied; children and 
savages, old and young, mad and sane, crimi- 
nals and guiltless, Mongol and Aryan, all will 
become in turn subjects of research, and no 
investigation, however laborious or however 
bizarre, will be shirked. 

From the accumulated results of such re- 
searches, pursued in every direction with all 
the painstaking industry of modern scientists, 
what are we to hope for? To those who have 
faith in modern psychology it is not hard to 
believe that such researches will be pursued 
and that in an, honest way. But what results 
are to be looked for? 

It is best for us to answer this question in 
a moderate way, minimising rather than exag- 
gerating. Well, then, among other things it is 
possible that these researches will find means 
of determining different types of will 1 — just 
as there are different types of memory, — and 
that they will point out good methods of train- 
ing each special type of will. It is possible 
that fairly sound methods of diagnosing and 

*We do not mean that any specific differences can be found 
among wills, but only accidental differences. 

230 



EPILOGUE 



treating will-maladies will be determined. It 
is possible that ingenious tests (though ive are 
sure they will never he at all conclusive) will 
be discovered for measuring the individual's 
will-power. It is possible, too, perhaps it is 
better to say just barely possible, that some 
light may be thrown on some phenomena which 
are spoken of at present as ' - telepathic, ' ' and 
that the conditions most favourable to the 
transmission of some kind of will-influence may 
be approximately determined. Something more 
may be found out about hypnotism, and the 
part played by the will in cases of insanity. 
There will doubtless be progress in many other 
directions of will-psychology as well, and much 
more accurate knowledge will be forthcoming 
about motives, conative impulses, choice, deci- 
sion, the means of intensifying will-acts and 
of developing the latent resources of the will. 
To return now to the questions — Is the day 
to come when a really efficient system of will- 
training will prevail! Is it probable that some 
change for the better will be wrought among 
men by improved methods of will-culture? On 
the whole it seems fairly reasonable to give 
an affirmative answer to these questions. Many 
men are seriously anxious to find a good sys- 
tem of will-training and there seems no intrin- 

231 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



sic or indeed extrinsic repugnance in the possi- 
bility of discovering it. Many men too would 
be benefited, we venture to say morally as well 
as in other ways, by utilising, as many cer- 
tainly will, such a system. Further, and on 
this point we wish to lay some stress, it is far 
from improbable that such a system, when 
adapted to the educational needs of the young, 
would do much good. Indeed, it seems to us 
not unlikely that a somewhat new orientation 
in education will be initiated, sooner or later, 
when a really efficient system of will-culture is 
forthcoming. 

Hitherto, whether we like to admit it or not, 
education (I speak, of course, of secular edu- 
cation, for it is not true of religious education) 
has been too much concerned with the furnish- 
ing and developing of the intellect. Memory, 
imagination and reasoning-powers have mo- 
nopolised too much the attention of teachers. 
"Our ordinary training," writes Professor 
Mathews, 2 "is a training in knowledge; what 
the world needs is a training in power. Knowl- 
edge by itself is of no more value than a corn- 
seed left to dry and rot till all its fructifying 
power is gone; the pursuit of knowledge for 

3 "The Principles of Intellectual Education, ' ' Cambridge 
Press, p. 128. 

232 



EPILOGUE 



its own sake is selfishness — the most dangerous 
form of it because the most subtle." It would 
seem that there is within us, quite wrongly, 
an inborn prejudice in favour of mind-culture 
as distinct from will-culture. Yet when we re- 
flect we cannot help recognising that a man 
whose mind alone is developed is less than half 
a man. "We should turn out our children 
knowing less but using well the less which they 
do know, so that it would be a vital whole with 
vital power of growth, not that agglomeration 
of dead knowledge of the past which is too 
often now regarded as the real aim of educa- 
tion. ' ' 3 Success in examinations is taken as 
proving competency for work of various kinds. 
And yet it is well known that what employers 
look for most is not mental culture but those 
fine qualities of character, energy, consistency, 
decision, and perseverance which are rather the 
outcome of will-culture. Beyond question a 
flexible and exact intellect is a magnificent pos- 
session, but without will-power and self-re- 
straint it is of little utility. 

The new orientation in education would con- 
ceivably take the form of courses, theoretic and 
practical, in will-education in schools. It seems 
far-fetched now-a-days to talk of will-education 

8 op. cit., p. 128. 

233 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



in secondary schools and colleges, but perhaps 
it is not unlikely that it will come about. Our 
forefathers would have stood aghast at the 
idea of the introduction of gymnastics and 
Swedish drill into schools and convents, and 
yet such a thing has come to pass. They would 
have scoffed at the realisation of Plato's 
dreams. But they would have been wrong in 
so doing. 

Apart, too, from schools and colleges, it does 
not seem improbable that many a " plain man" 
will be found well versed in the theories of will- 
psychology, and quite prepared to undertake 
suitable will-exercises for his own self-perfec- 
tion. In saying this, we feel the ground more 
sure under our feet, for we know of a certain 
number of cases of men of quite different in- 
terests and pursuits, who have undertaken such 
exercises, and, as they affirm, not without fruit. 

It must not, we repeat again, be thought that 
will-culture can ever replace in any way re- 
ligion, or that will-culture of itself has an ethi- 
cal significance, but nevertheless we cannot 
think of any kind of self -culture which har- 
monises so well with religion and with moral- 
ity. 

Should it ever happen, then, that will-cul- 
ture was taken up widely and popularly — as, 

234 



EPILOGUE 



of course, is not likely, but just possible — 
we feel sure that "a change for the better" 
would be wrought among men. There would be 
less sensuality and less dishonesty among those 
who thus strive to train their wills. It would 
serve for them in some sense as "a new force" 
and would inspire them to some high and noble 
enterprises. 

It is not unlikely that will-training would 
have a beneficial effect in curing or partly cur- 
ing many maladies of the nerves. Even men- 
tal diseases might thereby be banished. For, 
as we have said more than once, will-power is 
the greatest and purest natural force that we 
are possessed of, and it is capable of achiev- 
ing very great results. It does not seem too 
much to say that some good might be wrought 
in prisons, among criminals (among those 
especially whose religion is a negligible quan- 
tity) by teaching them how to exercise their 
powers of self-restraint, and how to control 
their passions by the natural powers of the 
mind. But, needless to say, in such cases al- 
most the only hope lies in winning them to the 
practice of religion. 

Professor Jacks 4 has pushed some of these 
thoughts too far, of course, but in an interest- 

4 ' ' The Alchemy of Thought. ' ' 
235 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



ing way when writing on the possibility of a 
Science of Man. 

1 ' That the intellectual temper of our time en- 
courages the belief in the possibility of the 
Science of Man, and the hope of its realisa- 
tion in the future, admits of little doubt. A 
state of the world when the system of natural 
laws shall be thoroughly understood, and when 
all human action shall be in accordance with 
this knowledge, is the far-off divine event to 
which vast numbers of persons are vaguely 
looking forward. 

"This millennium of science has been often 
described. Physiology and its cognates shall 
enable us to control our bodies ; we shall eat by 
science, dress, warm, and house ourselves by 
science. Psychology will have given us com- 
mand of our minds ; we shall know how our in- 
tellects, our emotions, our wills, act under given 
conditions, and we shall prepare them for act- 
ing accordingly; education will be thoroughly 
scientific; we shall teach nothing but what the 
laws of the mind allow the young to assimilate, 
and to assimilate in the most favourable man- 
ner. ' ' 

This millennium, of course, never will come. 
Nor will a millennium of will-culture come. But 
there seems reason to hope that the future of 

236 



EPILOGUE 



will-psychology, as regards its practical re- 
sults, will neither be uneventful nor barren. 
To us, this science seems the noblest of natu- 
ral sciences, yielding place not even to medi- 
cine, for it aims at discovering the laws where- 
by man may be put more and more in posses- 
sion of that supreme and kingly force which 
lies within him and which we name, Strength 
of Will. 



237 



APPENDIX 
THE SCIENCE OF CHARACTER 



APPENDIX 

THE SCIENCE OF CHARACTER 

It is generally admitted that in recent years 
experimental psychology has made remark- 
able advances. These advances consist mainly 
in the acquisition of a more exact knowledge 
of the natnre of various mental activities — 
and, in some cases, in the discovery of certain 
minor, but none the less interesting phases of 
the functioning of the mind. Such advances 
are due almost wholly to the perfecting of the 
methods of the science, and to the extraordi- 
nary industry and perseverance of modern ex- 
perimental psychologists. 

It seems hardly necessary to revert to the 
oft-explained distinction between rational and 
experimental psychology, and yet there con- 
tinues to be so much misunderstanding of the 
point that it is essential to do so. Briefly, 
then, the former science, the old-time rational, 
metaphysical psychology, treats of the nature 
or essence of the soul. It proves the soul to be 

241 



STRENGTHOFWILL 



simple, substantial, spiritual, immortal. Its 
proofs are rigid, and in a legitimate sense it 
is a complete or finished science. It " holds 
the truth," and its duty is now to teach the 
truth, to ' ' define it well. ' ' 

Quite distinct from this is experimental psy- 
chology. It is a natural science of the mind. 
It observes, experiments, as far as it is possi- 
ble to experiment on the mind, or will; it 
amasses and classifies phenomena and facts; 
it expands and advances with every new dis- 
covery. It does not enquire into the nature or 
essence of the soul, but it describes and ana- 
lyses the activities of the soul. It is, in fine, a 
kind of chemistry or physics of the mind, in 
so far as there can be a chemistry or a physics 
of a spiritual substance. 

Now the facts acquired by this natural sci- 
ence are, so to speak, handed on to the rational 
psychologist, and he builds his argument on 
these empirical data. He relies on the prin- 
ciple of St. Thomas, actio sequitur esse. And 
thus, "starting from the knowledge acquired 
in empirical psychology regarding the char- 
acter of the operations and activities of the 
mind, he draws further conclusions as to the 
root or subject of those activities." 1 

1 Father Maher, "Psychology," p. 6. 
242 



APPENDIX 



The advances made by experimental psy- 
chology, to which I have referred, led many to 
hope that in the domain of the science of char- 
acter the new methods would also win great 
discoveries. Some went so far as to hope that 
a means would be devised for reducing charac- 
ter to a formula. Should this hope ever be re- 
alised, it would happen that applicants for 
places or positions, instead of presenting let- 
ters of recommendation, would draw forth 
from their pocket-books certificates signed by 
expert psychologists, containing their precise 
character-formula. That such a dream should 
be ever realised is most unlikely. "The globe," 
writes a Scotch essayist, 2 "has been circum- 
navigated, but no man ever yet has; you may 
survey a kingdom and note the result in maps, 
but all the savants in the world could not pro- 
duce a reliable map of the poorest human per- 
sonality." Character never will and never 
can be fully known. Such is the conclusion 
which forces itself upon every reasonable man, 
when he considers the extraordinary complex- 
ity of human character. Still, a certain judi- 
cious approximation can be made. Character 
can be read to some extent. It can even, to 
some extent, be reduced to formula. This for- 

2 Alexander Smith. 

243 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



mula will approach nearer and nearer to the 
truth with the perfecting of experimental psy- 
chology. It is of this gradual advance of the 
science of character that I intend to write in 
this section. 

We now must turn to the question of char- 
acter — and begin by asking ourselves, what it 
is. First of all, it is the external clothing of 
personality — it is found only in the rational, 
individual nature, in the moral being. It is 
something liable to change and to modification, 
whereas personality remains unchanging and 
unchangeable. It is, then, something more on 
the surface, external, ephemeral, insubstantial, 
while lying, nevertheless, deep-founded in our 
mystic nature. Its elements are, on the one 
hand, constant, springing from an immutable 
nature; and on the other hand, Inconstant, 
springing from casual circumstances. It is 
"the total collection of man's acquired moral 
habits grafted into his natural tempera- 
ment. ' ' 3 Partly inherited and founded in the 
frame given us by our parents ; partly formed 
by deliberate and partly by indeliberate per- 
sonal activities; partly something inscrutable, 
ins aisis sable, completely spontaneous, defy- 
ing both analysis and definition, it is an amal- 

8 Maher, " Psychology, ' ' p. 391. 
244 



APPENDIX 



gam of nature's and nurture's gifts — unified, 
blended, inspired. 

Character has a manifold complexity of its 
own, and there seem to be difficulties utterly 
insurmountable in the way of an exact knowl- 
edge of it. First of all, there is the presence 
of that quality in the will which gives us an 
almost divine power, the quality of freedom. 
As free beings we can say "No!" even to God. 
This supremely spiritual endowment, defying 
all analysis, eluding all exact knowledge, is the 
central quality of character. By it a man who 
has a million times acted in a definite, char- 
acteristic manner when a certain occasion pre- 
sents itself, may possibly, and certainly has the 
power to, act differently when the million 
and first occasion presents itself. Again, there 
is an extraordinary resourcefulness in every 
spiritual being. Who can gauge the possibili- 
ties that lie hidden beneath even the meanest 
human nature? The greatest and most con- 
firmed cowards have on occasions surprised all 
the world by acts of bravery. Men of colos- 
sal stupidity have at times acted with supreme 
skill and tact. Indecision and hesitation, that 
seemed invincible, have given place to energy 
and resoluteness. In fine, as long as the body 
keeps within it a soul, it possesses a source of 

245 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



activity that may reveal itself in the least ex- 
pected ways. 

The vagueness of the descriptions or defini- 
tions of character, even by the most brilliant 
writers, strikes every careful reader. As an 
example let us take Lacordaire's description: 
"L'energie sourde et constante de la volonte, 
je ne sais quoi d'inebranlable encore dans la 
fidelite a soi-meme, a ses convictions, a ses ami- 
ties, a ses vertus, une force intime qui jaillit 
de la personne et qui inspire a tous cette certi- 
tude que nous appelons la securite." What is 
the "force intime" to which Lacordaire refers? 
What is the "energie sourde et constante' ' of 
the will? Doubtless he refers to that possibil- 
ity within us of making efforts, of whatever 
kind these efforts may be. Since the point is 
important it seems worth while to venture on 
an analysis of "effort." 

Let us again suppose ourselves on a cold day, 
at the end of a spring-board, about to take a 
plunge, but still hesitating. WTidt are the ele- 
ments of our total field of consciousness? (1) 
We know we have the power to make the effort, 
to take possession of our wills and so to set 
the human machine in motion. (2) We know 
that certain immediately painful and ultimately 
agreeable sensations will ensue. (3) We are 

246 



APPENDIX 



conscious of a feeling of hesitation, instability, 
and uncertainty, and of a distinct nerve-strain. 
(4) Our attention is at once focused and dis- 
tracted. Many unimportant details catch our 
attention, such as the frayed edge of the spring- 
board carpet — and yet such details do not dis- 
tract our minds from the central focus, the 
thought of the plunge. (5) Then we have a 
feeling of doom, the dreadful choice-doom; for 
one or other alternative must be embraced. 
(6) Next, there is the surge and ebb of various 
minor impulses. "Come! now! he's looking 
at me! No! not yet! wait a second! the sun 
is coming out!" (7) Then the idea-image of 
oneself swimming gaily about, or some other 
idea-image begins to develop, and the muscles 
begin to adjust themselves. (8) A desire to 
act grows on us, the sense of losing conscious- 
ness of what is happening comes upon us ; and 
(9) with a certain half -conscious, half -uncon- 
scious fiat we plunge in. The last stage of all 
is either too simple or too complex to be ex- 
actly described. Up to the last we feel we have 
power to linger on the board or to spring in, 
and now! we find ourselves in the water. 
This analysis 4 of what is commonly called 

4 Experimental analyses of volitions cannot in themselves 
prove the freedom of the will; but on the other hand systematic 

247 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



" effort,' ' shows how real is that " force in- 
time" referred to by Lacordaire. It is the 
source of our "efforts," that is, the source of 
our most important power. It is the supreme 
quality of strong characters to be able to make 
and reiterate efforts. On this quality their 
genius, as well as their strength and consistency, 
depends. In the words of a Belgian metaphysi- 
cian, "Le genie, c'est l'obstination" (Genius is 
obstinacy). 

We have seen, then, how complex character 
is. Its resourcefulness, relativity, constancy 
mingled with inconstancy, together with the 
fact of freedom, and its central spontaneous 
power of making efforts, seem to force on us, 
at once, the conclusion "that it is impossible 
to determine character-formulae, and that any 
attempt to do so would be absurd." We can 
know but few of the forces acting on the in- 
dividual, we can know but little of his power 
to resist such forces, and yet did we know both 
the one and the other, we should still, on ac- 
count of his freedom, be unable to prophesy 
definitely what action would result from the 
play of those forces. 

Though it seems, then, so difficult, nay, so 

experimental analyses of volitions go to show the utter worth- 
lessness of the psychological arguments of Determinists. 

248 



APPENDIX 



impossible, to determine in exact terms a given 
character, still it must be admitted that human- 
ity persists in the belief in the possibility of 
an accurate and precise reading of character. 
Business men stake fortunes on ventures which 
depend on the habits and idiosyncrasies of in- 
dividuals. Nations trust their welfare to the 
integrity and honour of single statesmen. The 
united representatives and princes of the 
Church place the happiness and the welfare 
of the faithful in their reading of the character 
of some poor priest whom they choose as Pope. 
Saints and leaders accept or reject the serv- 
ices or companionship of postulants on their 
swift personal discrimination of their charac- 
ters. 5 Nothing is so common in ordinary life 
as prophesyings about the future of "so-and- 
so" — <<h e ^11 end his days on the gallows," 
"he will do great things for his count ry." 
Then comes the inevitable shaking of the head, 
and the "I told you so." Again, have not we 
ourselves our moods — our character categories 
— which are well known to our friends? Such 
things make us sulk, such things make us gay, 
such things amuse, or weary, or worry us. The 

6 Business men and others do not prescind from free will in 
forming estimates of characters — for they are the first to blame, 
to praise and to hold each one responsible for his actions. 

249 



STEENGTHOFWILL 



little cycle of moods passes, and once more 
we sulk again. Those who have to deal with 
boys know how easy it is often to tell, almost 
to the minnte, how long the boy's mood will 
last. 

Then, a strange thing when we think of it, 
the more perfect the character is, the easier it 
is to prophesy concerning it. Friends of St. 
Dominic, or St. Francis, or St. Ignatius could 
tell almost with certainty what their views 
would be, or what attitude they would adopt in 
view of certain circumstances. They were men 
of rigid noble principles — and their will clung 
strongly to those principles — and their free- 
dom was, thanks to their virtues, a free choice 
of the best, the summum bonum. Or, if we 
take the characters of O'Connell, Lincoln, 
Washington, Pitt — in each case there was a 
striking continuity, each case presented great 
traits which were followed throughout life. 
This need of consistency of action is founded, 
as we have seen, in our very nature. It means 
economy of energy, of will-force. It means that 
we have habits — and that we act and choose 
according to definite lines — and that our mo- 
tives follow certain tracks. 6 George Eliot, in 

Vide, * ' Motive Force and Motivation Tracks, ' ' Longmans, 
1911. 

250 



APPENDIX 



"The Mill on the Floss," 7 describing the law- 
yer, Wakem, wrote: — "Mrs. Tulliver had sug- 
gested to him several determining motives and 
his mental glance was very rapid ; he was one of 
those men who can be prompt, without being 
rash, because their motives run in fixed tracks 
and they have no need to reconcile conflicting 
aims. ' 9 

The existence, then, of habits, consistency, 
and continuity of character, hereditary and ac- 
quired tendencies, together with all those forces 
which unite to make man, in a certain way, an 
automaton, as well as the existence of those 
immaterial motivation tracks, elsewhere de- 
scribed, result in justifying the pretensions of 
those who seek to read characters, and who 
seek to determine formulae of characters. 
Once more we repeat that a perfect formula 
is impossible. Man is free to the last to break 
through his habits, to falsify his formula. But 
in his normal state he lives according to his 
formula — in his normal everyday life he lives 
through his cycle of moods and categories — 
and is known as "old so-and-so" by his friends. 
But how is ' ' old so-and-so ' ' to be examined sci- 
entifically and microscopically, so as to have 
his formula determined! For that we must 

7 Chap. vii. 

251 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



turn once more to experimental psychology— 
or rather to that volitional act, the choice-act, 
which it is most competent to analyse. 

The choice-act is the most wonderful act of 
which we are capable. It is our most spiritual, 
our most complex, and our most intimate per- 
sonal act. It springs, so to speak, from the 
central fountain of our soul. It is vital, im- 
manent, intensely personal. It may be brief, 
and pass almost unnoticed, but it is, neverthe- 
less, the one act which betrays what we are, 
and what we are capable of. It displays 
abroad what is inmost in us. In the choice we 
make, in our manner of choosing, in our hesi- 
tations, impulses, hedonic attractions and re- 
pulsions, in our firmness or weakness in em- 
bracing the favoured alternative, we reveal our- 
selves. As we dwell apart in that strange 
sphere of choice — held captive between the 
two alternatives A and B ; now tending towards 
one, now towards the other ; suitors and foes in 
turn; tossed hither and thither by the winds 
of fancy; we feel, often, oppressed, humiliated, 
and deceived, and we cry out our secrets. The 
choice-act is, then, above all acts, that in which 
our character is revealed. For Euskin, to 
study a man's likes was to study his character. 
Certainly to study his likes and how he likes 

252 



APPENDIX 



is to study his character. To do so is to study 
his choice-acts, and in them, it is not too much 
to assume, all the essential elements of his 
character are revealed. 

"In the choice-process a man reveals him- 
self completely. Choice implies acting on mo- 
tives, and nothing gives a deeper insight into 
man's nature than the knowledge of his mo- 
tives, for they show us whether sense of duty 
or hedonic attraction plays the chief part in 
his life. Again, to choose is to put oneself in 
motion, to act ; not necessarily to act exteriorly, 
but to act, at least, within. But action at once 
betrays the strength or weakness, the resolute- 
ness or indecision of him who acts. Choice, 
too, implies motivation, and in motivation our 
power of reasoning (of insight into things), of 
calm and tranquil thought, is shown. In mo- 
tivation impulsiveness, caprice, inconsistency, 
and carelessness, or the opposite qualities, are 
inevitably manifested. ' ' 8 

Seeing, then, that character is primarily re- 
vealed in the choice-act, the method for study- 
ing character must be substantially that for 
studying choices. The choice-act must be sub- 
mitted to a close and searching analysis. Ele- 
ments of character must be drawn apart, clas- 

8 " Motive Force and Motivation Tracks/ ' pp. 205, 206. 
253 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



sified, and observed in every way, and experi- 
mented on as far as possible. To do so, how- 
ever, is essentially difficult. The only way we 
have of knowing what kind the choice was in 
itself is by the introspection of the chooser; 
and introspection, though a sound and useful 
method, is by no means a perfectly satisfactory 
method. 

Being condemned to the use of this one in- 
strument — introspection — in our study of the 
choice-acts of an individual, with the ultimate 
end of determining his character-formula, we 
arrange and devise a numerous series of sim- 
ple choices, to be made under optimal condi- 
tions for introspective observation. Every fa- 
cility is afforded the chooser for observing 
what passes within him and for having it re- 
corded in writing. 

It may be well, here, to give a brief account 
of the method employed by the present writer, 
in a series of experiments on the will and 
character conducted at Louvain University. It 
is typical of the experimental methods of those 
who are in sympathy with the Wiirzburg School 
of Psychology, a school which is distinctly 
Scholastic in its reliance on and reverence for 
introspection. 

The subjects learned by heart eight difler- 
254 



APPENDIX 



ently-flavoured liquids, to each of which a non- 
sense-name was attached. The liquids were 
colourless, and indistinguishable, save by their 
tastes. The subjects, when they had come to 
know them by their names, and had proved that 
knowledge by Recognition experiments, drew 
up Scales of Value, placing the liquids in order 
of agreeableness and the reverse. Some liq- 
uids were very agreeable, some very unpleas- 
ant. Choice experiments now began. The non- 
sense-names, taken in pairs, were printed on 
cards and presented to the subjects by Ach's 
card-changing machine. Under the card were 
placed the two classes referred to by the names 
on the card. The subjects were instructed as 
follows: "Two words will appear simulta- 
neously corresponding to the substances which 
are contained in the two glasses. You are to 
make your choice between these substances, and 
to drink at once the liquid which you have 
chosen." 

The time of the choice, from the appearance 
of the card to the re-action (given by raising 
the finger to take a glass and drink) was meas- 
ured by the Hipp chronoscope to the thou- 
sandth of a second. The subject was required, 
immediately after each experiment, to give an 
exact account of all that passed through his 

255 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



mind. These introspections were afterwards 
analysed and compared with great care. 9 

By means of this method, when a subject 
had made a few hundred choices, his intellec- 
tual and volitional nature was, to a great ex- 
tent, revealed. All his hedonic tendencies, 
their frequency, and their force ;. all his hesita- 
tions and oscillations, were numbered, classi- 
fied and measured. Efforts made to overcome 
hesitation, and immediate effects of hesitation ; 
discouragement, irritation, inconsistency, etc., 
were all noted and examined. Again, impul- 
sive tendencies, capricious movements, evi- 
dences of higher or lower motives, rhythmic 
motions to and fro between alternatives, or 
rhythmic turnings from one motive to another ; 
in fine, every type of psychological phenome- 
non bearing on choice was analysed. If a sub- 
ject chose for intrinsic motives and strength- 
ened his motives by an appeal to some higher 
principle or axiom; and if his choices became 
smoother, easier, more regular, swift and au- 
tomatic, it was clear that his will was func- 
tioning well, and that will-power was being 
economised. On the other hand, if a subject 
chose for extrinsic motives, if he only strength- 

8 For further account of the method see ' ' Motive Force and 
Motivation Tracks." 

256 



APPENDIX 



ened such motives by an appeal to some purely 
accidental circumstance, in fine, if he fell into 
long and painful hesitations, and into incon- 
sistencies, and if his choices, instead of grow- 
ing smooth and automatic, grew jerky, un- 
pleasant, and irregular, it was clear that his 
will was functioning badly, and that will-force 
was being wasted. 

Again, if, when compared with other sub- 
jects, his motives proved more hedonic, his hes- 
itations more frequent and more violent, his ca- 
pricious acts more numerous (or, if the con- 
trary was the case), a new insight into his char- 
acter was gained. By comparison with other 
subjects many interesting points could be de- 
termined. And by comparison with an ideal 
type, formed by taking the mean, with respect 
to important elements of character, in the cases 
of several subjects, much could be gained. 
Such an ideal type might thus be formed. If, 
say, ten subjects, having gone through a cer- 
tain number of similar experiments, of the type 
just described, showed signs of hesitation in, 
say, 5, 6, 15, 25, etc., per cent, of their choices, 
the ideal type might be supposed to hesitate 
in the percentage which represented the mean 
of 5, 6, 15, 25, etc. 

Such a method of forming an ideal type of 
257 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



character is obviously open to many objections. 
" Hesitation," "hedonism," "capriciousness," 
are not things to be numbered or meas- 
ured or weighed. Character is not like a plum- 
pudding, composed of so many ingredients, 
taken in so many quantities. It is too vital and 
complex and spiritual to be thus treated. Our 
only plea for a hearing is that we are striving, 
though lamely of course, to suggest a concrete, 
practical method of determining approximate 
character-formulae. 

When, at length, we have determined the pro- 
portionate amount of hedonism, indecision, in- 
consistency, etc., in the character we are study- 
ing, it only remains, in order that we may write 
his character in the form of a formula, to de- 
termine on symbols. In the work on Will Psy- 
chology, already quoted, the following formula 
is given for S 2 (one of the subjects of the series 
of experiments). 

S 2 = Act. 1'5 + Res. 1 + Hed. 3 + Hes. 2 + Incon. 
2'5 +Aesth. 1 + Repr. 0'5 . . . . 10 

10 Act.=Active Tendencies, .Ees.r=Kesistanee to Tendencies, 
ZZ"ed.=Hedonism, Hes.=Hesitation, 7?ican.=Inconsistency, 
AestJi.=Aestheticism, .Kepr.=Bepresentations, Images, etc. 
This formula could, with further research, be rendered much 
more complete. Such items as Incon., Res., etc., are capable of 
analysis and breaking up into many further qualities. 

258 



APPENDIX 



We have, here, put intellectual and eonative 
phenomena side by side. We have been at a 
loss to determine what the chief element of 
character is. Our proceeding is simply and 
purely empirical. We state that, de facto, un- 
der the conditions of our experiments, the for- 
mula given above approximately represents the 
intellectual and volitional nature of S 2 , as com- 
pared with the standard described above. We 
are aware that the formula is incomplete and 
open to criticism. We merely propose it as a 
tentative effort. 11 

The obvious objection against any attempt 
of this kind to reduce something so vital, so 
many-sided, so dynamic as character to a for- 
mula, is that no percentage or quantitative ex- 
pression of volitional and intellectual phenom- 
ena comes near to representing it. It is some- 
thing deeper, something more immanent, some- 
thing more "insaisissable." 

We have stated that character reveals itself 
in the choice-act, and that the choice-act is the 
most important act that we perform. It fol- 
lows, then, that especial care should be devoted 
to our method of choosing. Some choices are 
well made, others very badly made. Some 
choices are firm, calm, and certain, agreeable 

n op. eit., p. 213. 

259 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



in feeling tone, even and smooth in "move- 
ment." Other choices are feeble, uncertain, 
uneven and painful; far from bracing us up, 
as so important a mental act should, they leave 
us debilitated. To choose well should, then, be 
our aim, in view of training and developing 
our character, and to teach others to choose 
well is to show them how to perfect their char- 
acter. To acquire a habit of choosing for good 
motives, in a deliberate, confident manner, is 
to improve immensely our character — indeed, 
it may be admitted that the psychology of mo- 
tivation and the psychology of character are 
practically identical. 

What, it may be asked, is the secret of choos- 
ing well, and in consequence of perfecting char- 
acter? The answer would seem to be that nor- 
mally, at least, the secret of choosing well is 
to form an accurate and clear estimate of the 
values of the alternatives between which we 
choose. "The central fact of the researches 
we have been describing is that, when a choice 
has to be made between two alternatives, the 
choice is quick and easy, in proportion as the 
values of the alternatives are clearly and defi- 
nitely known." 12 We must, then, clearly and 
definitely determine the values of alternatives, 

12 cf. above, pp. 78-79. 

260 



APPENDIX 



and that, of course, if possible, long before the 
choice begins. We must have our fixed scale 
of values. We must have a scale of values for 
every sphere in which we live, and for our life 
as a whole. There must be a top-value, a ne 
plus ultra with which nothing whatever is com- 
parable for us. It must be the top-value of St. 
Paul or St. Ignatius, if we would reach their 
extraordinary strength of purpose and noble 
consistency. 

Then, again, there must be a lowest, a bot- 
tom-value, something which must never be 
chosen. There must also be middle-values and 
perhaps neutral-values. Into such details it is 
not necessary to enter. The main fact (as 
shown by the researches to which I have re- 
ferred) must be kept in mind if we would 
learn the secret of choosing well, and so per- 
fecting our character. It is, that our scale of 
values must be clearly and definitely known — 
each grade rigidly fixed and partitioned off 
from that above, and from that below. 

To such a solution of the problem of how to 
choose well, the obvious objection is that at 
times we know and see clearly that one thing 
is more valuable than another, yet we take 
what is worst: video meliora proboque, dete- 
riora sequor. Something, then, further than 

261 



STRENGTH OF WILL 



the mere clear and definite knowledge of a 
scale of values is required? To answer this ob- 
jection we may point out that what we are 
seeking to give is the practical solution of the 
problem. 

We do not, of course, deny that it often hap- 
pens that one course is clearly and definitely 
known to be better than another, and yet that 
the other is followed. Still we believe that such 
a case is less frequent. The more frequent an- 
tecedent of wrong conduct is a confused, un- 
certain state of mind. 

We have seen, so far, that thanks to Will 
Psychology, which enables us to analyse 
choices in a methodical way, we are in a posi- 
tion, in certain circumstances, to determine the 
character-formulae of individuals. We have 
seen, too, that the perfecting of character is 
nothing else than the perfecting of our choice- 
powers; and that whereas personality is, and 
will remain, a riddle, and separate individuals 
will ever be to each other as Border peel is to 
Border peel on Tweedside, nevertheless, for 
practical purposes, character may be sufficient- 
ly discovered and made known. Indeed, the 
supposed impenetrability of character would 
seem to be frequently exaggerated by authors 
for literary effect : — 

262 



APPENDIX 



"A person [writes Smith] interests or piques 
or tantalises yon. Yon do yonr best to make 
him out, yet strive as yon will, you cannot read 
the riddle of his personality. From the invul- 
nerable fortress of his own nature he smiles 
contemptuously on the beleaguering armies of 
your curiosity and analysis.' ' 

This, indeed, is hardly true, and the task set be- 
fore the psychologist of character is neither 
so hopeless nor so difficult. 



263 



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